To be a father
by Angevelinka
Summary: Two single fathers - one rich, the other poor, one overprotective, the other neglecting, can they find the way to communicate? In the end, kids is all they have.  'All I fear is the ring of the phone.'  'Me too.'  AU, hints, future GaaNaru, ShikaTema
1. 1: Teddy

_AN: Yet another result of me and Panur rping. This chapter was beta-read by one and only Shiruji – she was a great help, thank youXD_

He was sure he must have crossed him half a dozen of times when he came to drop off his kid in the mornings, but the truth was that he had never been an early riser, and taking his own personal mini-me to preschool was an act of reflex more than a conscious action; and if he could barely tell the difference between the Walking-green-guy and the Stop-before-a-car-runs-you-over-red-guy on the street lights, he obviously didn't stand a chance to remember anyone's faces. He limited himself to nod and wave back when someone did it his way –go basic urban education!- And if it hadn't been because they had both been called to the daycare to tend to fiercely-glaring, rather bruised (and in Naruto's case, bloodied) kids five months ago, he wouldn't have known who the hell the guy was.

Moving in and adjusting and all that psychological crap that he had to care about as a parent had been, exactly as expected, a matter better measured at a scatological level, so he hadn't been at all surprised that less than a week into his new daycare, Naruto had made a mortal enemy and had gone down to fists with him. Casualties had resulted in numerous superficial scrapes (that Naruto could have done perfectly on his own if left unsupervised for five minutes), an unsalvageable shirt that Naruto had spilled, what looked like, a liter of blood on it; a vaguely concerning scrape on redhead's elbow and a lot of dirty looks directed to one another.

He lived five blocks away from the daycare, so he had arrived at the daycare almost before the incident could have been considered over. The redhead's dad had taken about forty more minutes to appears, had come in looking pissed, and had glared at his kid until the poor thing looked as if he just wanted earth to swallow him, he had left the daycare nanny with the words half-hanging on her mouth and then went off while dragging his kid without sparing the little blond a glance. Yes, not a very good memory, he had been concerned about the next day - but the redhead looked as perfect as ever. Plus it was summer so there was a lot of skin showing but he didn't see any bruises, so unless the guy was crazy careful with where he was hitting-

At any rate, that had been five months ago. He had pretty much forgotten about the incident until the previous day. Naruto had looked unusually thoughtful as they walked back home and after a good deal of prodding, his son had asked him if he could start picking him up a little later. Because if he came on time, Gaara would have to stay at the daycare alone until his dad came for him.

Minato, of course, had had no idea who Gaara was, so he was more than a little shocked to find out that it had been the same pale, baggy-eyed redhead that Naruto had claimed to be his worst enemy –he had initially believed Naruto had given the kid two black eyes- had quite naturedly transitioned from enemy to best friend in the span of a month, and according to the nanny, they had been joined at the hip ever since. Not that he was exactly surprised. Violent change of ideas and moods (undiagnosed bipolarity, as he liked to affectionately call it when he wasn't in the range of a blow) had been one of Kushina's main traits.

At any rate, Minato didn't think it was a good idea to leave two kids playing alone in an otherwise empty park under the dubious supervision of a teacher who had already finished her shift and just wanted to go somewhere else. So here he was, reading a pocket book and watching said kids play together while waiting for Sabaku what's-his-name to show up so he could talk to him about what they could do. He wondered if the kid waited two hours on a regular basis, or if he was just getting lucky.

Sabaku Daichi hadn't started the day in a particularly good mood. First he wanted to make his kids breakfast, but then it turned out that there was not enough cheerios for all of them and Temari, being the good girl she was, gave Gaara her bowl while she ate a bit of Daichi's own plate (which he wouldn't have made if it wasn't to make her eat).

'It's because I'm older and I can.' she said, eating his pork weenie while the boys looked at him with some kind of dissatisfaction, milk and cheerio crumbles around their faces. It was good they were too hungry to complain or start a fight over the privilege of eating with him too. After Kankuro had finally downed his bowl and Gaara was only half way to the bottom of his own bowl (not being too good at using a spoon), Temari said: 'Father, I think the clock is broken.'

Everything went downhill from there. He made them all dress up in five minutes, not letting Gaara eat the rest – resulting in him being in foul mood and sucking on his dirty teddy nonstop (but if he took it away Gaara would start to cry so he couldn't fuss over it – he was not in a very good predicament to do that).

He dropped Temari off at her school just in the nick of time, but Kankuro was late and he looked deeply dissatisfied that Daichi couldn't go with him and apologize because Mr. Gekkou tended to put the late kids in the corner and it was humiliating. After scribbling something barely recognizable on a scrap of newspaper (some valid explanation) he pushed the kid out of the car and drove away to the kindergarten. He was already an hour late when he dropped off his youngest with his plush but without a sweater on that cold day. He recognized his mistake when he was half-way to work, in the street jam, and wanted to bang his head on the wheel.

If Gaara got sick they would get into big trouble. And on top of that – he came to work almost two hours and fifteen minutes late. Which was quite good considering he once arrived four hours late and it was the day he was supposed to give off a presentation he had worked on for six months. It went down the drain. But that was then. Only, his chief didn't think so.

'Sabaku.' he said with the disapproval in his voice and showed him his watch 'Any explanation for this?'

'I'll work this out.' said Daichi, already knowing that he would be sitting at work for an extra two hours and that Temari would be sitting alone in school again, talking to the floor cleaner. And Kankuro would probably make a scene for being so late and Gaara…

He didn't even want to think what Gaara would do once the nanny closed the kindergarten for the day. He was a calm kid but also an unpredictable kid and the woman had already had enough of him and didn't take care of him for longer than half an hour after time. Thanks to that Gaara once broke his hand and once almost lost his life. He even got in trouble with some blond kid once. It was the worst time to get into trouble but he just did it and all because of what? Some blond boy taking his teddy away.

He felt so helpless, he didn't have strength to scream at him for his selfishness over some piece of rugs. Plus, the danger of him crying his lungs out all the way back home until the police came was also something he didn't want to experience. God knew what would happen this time? He couldn't stop thinking about it, so his work effectiveness was equal to zero and he got scolded for being unorganized and messy, twice, that day. Then he had to look at it again and he almost tore his hair off his head for not being able to count the numbers up. Every time it came out differently…

Thanks to all that, he worked three hours longer. But there was luck in bad luck – his car didn't crash or anything and Temari was a good girl like always, not complaining or anything. Kankuro also behaved nicely. Even though he looked up at him with eyes that were red from crying, he tried to look as if he hadn't. That was a nice act from both parts.

He felt so relieved and relaxed after the murderous day at work that he almost forgot he had a third kid waiting for him and he managed to drive three streets away from the destination. When he finally got to the kindergarten – the stars could be counted on the sky. And dear God, he didn't even manage to go shopping. Not that he any bright perspectives for that.

He stared at the closed door like the idiot he was and then ran around, trying to spot the redhead anywhere. But before he could cry out the first 'Gaara' he tripped over something small and blond and fell flat on his face. Once he got up, now full of sand in his three days old beard, he saw the pale redhead sucking on his toy and looking as if he was catching the first signs of hypothermia.

'Daddy.'

'Naru, be more careful.' an adult's voice admonished as a hand grabbed Sabaku senior by the elbow and helped him back up.

'But daddy, _**he**_ tripped on me!' the blond said, dusting himself off theatrically and smearing bright colored chalk on his white pants. Why did he even bother buying the kid clothes with solid colors? Minato thought to himself. He should just buy some colorful, hippy mess of tie-dye monstrosity where stains would just blend in, never to be recognized. Shaking his head with a somewhat grim smile, he turned to the redheaded father.

'You must be Gaara's father, right? I`m Uzumaki Minato, we met a few months ago.'

'You- Ah, yes, I'm sorr- Gaara!' The red haired male didn't seem to be particularly interested in who was talking to him and about what as it seemed like he didn't notice him once they left the little kid and when he got up, he turned to look at the redhead again, ignoring both of blondes. That wasn't important now. 'Wear this and go to the car right now, I told your siblings not to open the windows, it should be warm there…'

'But I am warm.' protested the kid, though he wasn't really. 'And your coat is too big for me. I want to play a little more…'

The redheaded male looked at the kid as though he couldn't understand what he was talking about. He had been alone for hours and wanted to play more?... Then he noticed the blond kid - and finally recognized him. It was the same kid that got into a mess after having taken the plush from his son.

He immediately got up from his crouching position, took the kid by the arm and tugged him as he walked up to the blond male and bowed down in a deep apologizing bow.

'I'm sorry for whatever he did again. I'll pay for whatever he has broken.' Gaara didn't seem to be as convinced as him so he tugged on him sharply. The kid got the signal and bowed down also.

'I'm sorry for playing hide-and-seek.'

The taller blond sweat-dropped.

'He… didn't really break anything or do anything bad…' he said, rubbing the back of his head self consciously. 'They weren't fighting. Naruto just wanted to stay a little longer to play with Gaara-kun…'

A little longer… He had expected it to amount to maybe one hour, two at most. Not four. He would have dragged his own kid back home if it weren't for Naruto looking at him as if he had just suggested to ban ramen from existence when he had suggested it and the redhead had looked as if he had been about to cry. So he had just asked the nanny to watch them for a moment while got back home to get something for them to snack on. Nothing fancy, just a couple apples and peaches, as he didn't want the redhead getting full on something not-parental-dinner, as parents nowadays were rather picky on schedules and stuff…

But after another hour and a half had passed, he had gone and bought them some cookies to share. No, it wasn't healthy and it messed the dietary equilibrium he had set for Naruto, but both kids had looked tired and hungry, because really, what did you do with an apple and a peach when you were four years old? He didn't know about other kids, but Naruto was a termite, and the redhead didn't seem to be very far behind in the amount of enthusiasm towards eating.

An few minutes ago, the place had actually closed as the last batch of kids left, leaving him with both kids coloring the sidewalk with some leftover chalk, that he was sure his son had smuggled out from a classroom, and some other teacher that was supposedly watching them, but who seemed too intent on filing her nails in the classroom to actually check on the kids. Oh, speaking of which, there she was…

'Mr. Sabaku, yes?' she spoke, looking at him with distaste. The redheaded male looked back at her with a frown, obviously not recognizing her 'I'm Yuuichi Kurenai, teacher in this kindergarten. I want to express my concerns about the fact that you have been coming for your child this late for at least five days a week…'

'What?' The man interrupted her, now turning back to her completely and crossing his arms as though he was some kind of a celebrity and yet, a watchdog who stopped the intruders to some invisible club. 'I'm sorry, but it seems you're mistaking me for someone else. I don't come late that often-'

'But it's not the first time you're this late Mr. Sabaku!' she said, interrupting him and putting her nice, red painted nails on her hips 'What is running around in your head, mister? This is not a 24/7 nanny-care, it's a kindergarten and we are not supposed to stay here and take care of kids for God knows how long because the parents are busy sitting in some dirty corner of the street and drinking-'

'I am not an alcoholic!' the man shouted, though he restrained his tone, seething his words through his teeth 'The whole day I was working for food on the table for all my three children and I really couldn't help being so late, but if I'm not late they will soon have nothing to eat and then you might call the Child Care Center to tell them that I'm bad parent, right?'

'Well, leaving them alone on the street might also get them kidnapped or hurt so I can't actually say that it's good parenting.'

The red-haired man closed his jaw, gulping loudly and clawed slowly at his uniform with his fingers, but still didn't break through his cool.

'I am working hard to pay for this damned kindergarten with my damned money and I can at least expect for my kid to be taken care of until I come so I can properly feed them and take him home, am I, or am I not?' He uttered through tightly clenched teeth, his sharp eyes shining of murderous-intent. The woman didn't seem to be fazed though.

'But not for four damned hours.' she replied smugly, then looked at the watch 'I'm not paid enough for this. This time I'm going to let it go because Mr. Uzumaki was so kind to take care of your son. But I swear, one more incident like that and I will report you to the police so maybe the kid can find some other parent who doesn't drink-'

'I don't drink!'

'... and get here on time. Right, Gaara?'

The woman crouched down to the red-haired kid with a warm smile. Gaara looked back at her with insecurity, not knowing what she wanted from him, but he smiled back too because she was pretty. Daichi looked at them with horror.

'I see that we agree. Now, goodbye Mr. Sabaku, I have to go. I hope you will remember my words and treat them as seriously as I did when I told them. Bye, Gaara.'

'Bye, bye!' The kid said, waving back at her with a smile. That was too much for Daichi.

'And why the hell are you so happy about!' he shouted, bringing up a fist to actually hit Gaara, but his lack of strength got the best of him and he uncurled his fist before it connected with the little head, not touching it. The kid looked back at him, terrified and obviously not understanding what he had done wrong. Daichi scowled at him.

'I can't believe this.' He murmured and frowned, feeling the evening cold starting to bite at his skin 'To the car, you little traitor. Move!' He pushed the kid - almost making him trip over and turned toward Minato, bowing a goodbye and almost tripping over Naruto again as he caught Gaara's hand and dragged him forward.

'Jesus, what a day… and there's also… there's also no dinner at home! Are you happy about that too?' he shouted at the kid who only paled in the response.

'I wanted to say bye to Naruto…'

'Oh, shut up!... We're so late you should already be in bed and you want to say bye to Naruto! What the hell, I thought I had a reasonable kid!...'

'W-why are you angry at me?...'

'I said shut up! I'm not in the mood to handle your stupid questions right now!'

The kid hiccupped, trailing after him, trying not to cry and chewing on the toy that was dirtier than the coat he gave him. He really shouldn't do that. But the day was breaking down around him and his nerves stopped supporting him. Call the child's welfare! Of course he won't be able to make it on time again and again every day! It wasn't technically possible! This was the only thing that hadn't happened to him yet, and now it did.

Minato did the sensible thing as the irate teacher approached; and dragged his kid at a sensible distance, wishing he could do the same with the little redhead but he was not really able to as his father still had a grip on him. Poor kid, really. It was awful when your parents blamed their stress on you, and this guy seriously looked like he packed a healthy dose of stress. It was hard not to hear the conversation, but by the moment the woman finally departed he barely had a second to grab Naruto and drag him down the tree he had been attempting to climb and drag him by the jacket after the pair.

'Mr. Sabaku, please wait…!'

The other man stopped, looking around with weary eyes, obviously not expecting to be called back again. Then he frowned and tugged his kid as he turned around, making the redhead stumble a little.

'What is it? You said he didn't break anything…. Or did he?' he looked at the kid with the deepening frown and scowled at him even more 'What the hell did you do?'

'Nawthing…' was the response. It was barely understandable as the kid was now fully in hysteria, probably only holding together because his parent had a steel grip on his hand. He was chewing on the toy. 'Aw did nawthing…'

The other man looked like if he wanted to hit the kid again but he restrained himself from doing that and bowed down again.

'I'm really sorry.'

'Stop apologizing, no one did anything!' The older man said, looking slightly horrified by all the apologizing that was going on. Or maybe it was the way the tears were welling up in the redhead's eyes. 'Look, I can understand that you've had a really rough day and I don't mean to hold you up any longer than necessary, and I don't want to cause trouble but I mean to say… That teacher is right.' He had to continue in a hurry as the man made a face that made Naruto, normally the boldest of four-years-olds hide behind his legs, clutching at his jeans loosely. 'Please don't take that the wrong way, I had the same kind of problems with my last job. What I really mean to say is…'

He finally seemed to find the appropriate words and relaxed visibly, his smile also becoming more natural and sunny.

'I work at home right now and usually pick up my own son around midday. Naru wants to stay so he can play longer with Gaara, but days are getting cold and I'd really prefer for him to be at home, so... If you don't mind it, I'd have no problem taking Gaara with us and looking after him until you can come and pick him up. I live a few blocks away.'

The man slowly straightened from his bow, looking at the blond haired man with a frown. Did he hear him right? But… what? They were not colleagues nor acquaintances, so the man had no reason for doing so… unless… unless…

'I don't have any money.' he said calmly, standing stiff 'Thank you for the offer but we will manage somehow. Now I'm sorry, I have two other kids waiting for me. Goodbye.'

'Uh, sir-' Sir? What was he, twelve? How old was this guy anyway? He couldn't be much older by perhaps three or four years...or six or seven, but he was already thirty himself!... Almost! 'It's not what you think; I'm not some babysitter or anything like that. Naru doesn't have brothers and it gets lonely at the house, so I'd really appreciate if he could have some company a few more hours.'

'Really!' The other man shot back, turning back on his heels and facing the blond with the most uncomfortable closeness 'Then, if you have so much time and your kid is so lonely why not to take all my kids together at once as I'm always late to all the places they are at! I will give you schedules and nothing in exchange! How does that sound to you?'

He smiled at him smugly as he knew very well that nobody would go for it. The places his kids went to weren't really far away from each other but they weren't too close either. He wouldn't do that even if he had more money and only one child. This offer seemed to be too suspicious – he saw the man for the second time in his life! And what if his intentions were… more dirty?

'What, too afraid that's too many to… take care of?' he drew slowly, feeling that if anything, such offer would be a real help here, but miracles didn't happen and he didn't believe in god anyway. What were the odds?

Minato stepped back, rather surprised by the negative effect his suggestion had had on the man. He hadn't been meaning to help him exactly; it was just that his baby had apparently decided that the redhead was his long lost brother or something, well if it couldn't be helped…

'I'm sorry if my request was out of line. I didn't mean to insult you.' He said calmly with the smile back in place. He tugged at his son, removing his hand from the grip on his pants and taking it in his own.

'Well, my termite is hungry, so I better go feed him… Good night, Mr. Sabaku, Gaara-kun.' he said, waving at the little redhead.

'Bye, Gaara…!' The younger kid said, waving widely at the redhead despite being only two meters away.

The redhead waved back shyly, but not much as he looked at father. Daichi softened his face, replying to the goodbye shortly and without any ads to the words. What was there more to be said? Things never went well and it was just… a too good idea that came from nowhere and that didn't have the right to happen.

'Let's go Gaara, we're going home.' he said and pulled on the redhead lightly, turning around and walking back to the car. The sky was now a dark blue and the stars were shining brightly. The kid tried to walk as fast as him but he failed so he slowed down a bit and let Gaara catch up. Sure, they were in bad situation, but somehow they managed to get out of it alone and this time would be no different, after all he-

'Daddy…'

He stopped and rid himself of his trail of thoughts. The kid sniffled a bit, looking up at him. He noticed how reddened the face was and felt a little regret creeping into his heart, but he was never good at this so he didn't show it in any way.

'What is it, Gaara?' he asked. The kid seemed to have problems speaking up about what had been running around in his head.

'I… 'He started, then grimaced as the new flow of tears started pouring down his cheeks. Daichi instinctively curled his hand a little tighter around the small one 'I'm sorry there is no dinner at home… I didn't mean to…'

The older male stopped and looked at the kid who was now starting to cry again while cuddling the teddy and gnawing on it. It felt bad to look at what he caused.

'So am I.' he spoke finally and let go of the little hand. He couldn't look at him anymore and tugging at the kid when things felt unpleasant to him also seemed to be inappropriate. Gaara, instead of walking in a slow pace just stood in place, hiccupping, then he ran back to him with a loud wail ('Daddy!'), obviously wanting to be comforted. But he did not have strength for that.

'Temari, get your brother to the car.' He said, opening the door to the back seats. Kankuro was already asleep while his sister was quietly observing everything through the window. 'Gaara, calm down. Your brother is sleeping.' The door closed with a loud 'clack'. Good that his kids were at least obedient to his words. Gaara, though he was still crying, was doing it in a more quiet tone. Tomorrow would be a hard day. But they would manage. Wouldn't they?

#+#+#+#+#+# 

They didn't. The clock worked better this time, so they didn't get up very late but when the point of putting on the shoes came up Gaara suddenly started crying and saying that he was not going anywhere and that he _was not, _he_ wasn't, _he_ didn't want, no, no, no!..._ It took a whole twenty minutes to understand what was wrong with the kid. Gaara was hungry.

And in the radio there was this a little too vivid and a little too cheery advertisement of some 'Funny buny' which meant some kind of a bun with sweet filling – he didn't quite get what it was as he was not listening closely. But it seemed that their poor diet was too much for them all and the youngest of them had reached his breaking point.

And it really felt awful when the youngest child just laid there, hysteric, screaming that he wouldn't go anywhere until he'd got 'funny buny' as the other two stood there, ready to go out but with hunger written in their eyes and yet, only by a strong will or maybe because of the responsibility of being older and therefore not being able to act childish – stood with sad faces. Thought he saw that Kankuro, would probably break in tears in any minute now if he could. Daichi was nearly half an hour late and it didn't seem to work well on what's happened before.

He looked at the kid and felt helpless, beaten and wished Karura was here so he wouldn't have to act like a bad parent and scream at Gaara. A good method said to ignore the hysteria and explain to the kid that he couldn't afford any bun, no matter if it was big, small or fun size.

But the time was working against him and against all of them so he just turned to the other kids and smiled with no real smile in it.

'We don't have money for a 'funny buny'.' he told them and they knew very well. Kankuro looked at the floor, hiding his hands in the pockets while Temari clenched her jaw.

'Buy it for him.' she said quietly, almost in silent tone 'I can go without lunch today.'

Daichi looked at her with a frown.

'I can't really agree to that-'

Kankuro coughed and took out a hand in which lied some poor savings, probably from some interests he did behind the back of all of them as he couldn't give all of them money every day.

'We're running late.' He added quietly. Gaara was still lying on the floor, crying.

He looked back at his kids with remorse in his eyes and took the money from them with the most painful gesture he ever did. It was not supposed to be that way. Not yet. Not for that. It was too early.

'Thank you.' He whispered almost with no audible voice and stroked them on their heads lightly

'Come on Gaara. We will buy you a 'funny buny'.'

And finally, Gaara moved.

#+#+#+#+#+#

The shopping went smoothly. The only problem was his guilt as he did not use his own money to buy junk food full of calories with a taste of 'mango and blueberry' that had more 'E's in its ingredients than his pack of cigarettes (unused as he get rid of the bad habit some time ago – it was too expensive). But getting on the road was worse. The time they used on getting into the car and going to a drive through managed to get them into a nice street jam and he could only sit and curse silently, watching the clock in the car. Temari was late… Kankuro was late… now Gaara was late…

'Can… can I have a bite?'

'Kankuro!'

'What! I only want one bite! Don't tell me you don't want to try it too! It's our money!'

'Ours or not, don't try asking him or he will cry again! We give father too many worries already! Restrain yourself! Gaara, is that good?'

'Yumm.'

He looked at the mirror that hung in front of his eyes, seeing how Temari looked through the window, pale and trying to ignore the loud 'om nom noms' as Gaara engulfed himself into fat and sugar and Kankuro who, on the other hand, watched openly and greedily at the piece of a sweet. And just when he looked away to take out his phone that had been ringing…

'I can't take it! Just one bite!'

'Aaaan~~!'

'Kankuro!'

'What! What?'

'Let go of it!

He looked back shouting something along the lines of 'Calm down!' and picked the phone up as the 'down' part made it go into rather loud 'hello'.

'Yes, Sabaku speaking…'

'Mr. Sabaku? Where are you? Chief is in a really foul mood today and I can't really cover up for you anymore! I'm running out of excuses!'

'Ah, I'm really sorry Yato, but you see-'

'Aaaan! My buny!'

'Kankuro, stop it! Stop it right now! It's his bun, you dummy, you stupid, let go, let go, let go!...'

'Ow, ow, ouch! Stop hitting me, ow, I'm letting go, I'm letting go you stupid girl! But I only wanted to have a bite!'

'-and I'm just on the Spica Street, but I need to get my kids to school-'

'How many times do I have to tell you it's his bun! Grow up a little! He is just a kid!'

'Are you kidding me? There's no way I can hold up for you for another two hours! You will have to stay in at work, I swear. And pray to not be fired, the contract which we strived to make for so long got into a real bad condition and the boss is breathing fire-'

'So what if he is just a kid? I'm a kid too! I'm just a year older! And I only wanted a bite! I don't want to steal it from him! I'm just hungry, you know? Hungry!'

'…please, it's urgent, if I don't make it on time today I'll have children's welfare on my back and you know very well how it is here and that I can't do that-'

'Do you think I'm not hungry too? I am! But that's what it is to be an adult! To give and not to take, but you're obviously just a stupid little baby, too little to understand that!'

'-I'm sorry, pal. Can't be done. Just try to arrive as fast as you can.

*click*

He stared at the phone in silence as if it killed his friend, then banged his head on the wheel as he saw how the lights had changed but no car had moved – ad the tempo was so slow that it didn't affect their car at all. He sat there, trying not to think about anything at all as the whole situation seemed to worsen. Was it really possible for that teacher to call children's welfare? What was her problem? Couldn't she see that he TRIED? He tried so hard! He even spoiled his kids in such a bad situation as this… And speaking of which, they were oddly silent for the row they had made just a few seconds ago. He turned back and saw why.

Kankuro and Temari hugged themselves to their respective sides of the car, each looking out a different window as they cried quietly, visibly trying to hide their faces from the world. And in the middle of them sat Gaara with this colorful 'funny buny' in his lap, his face covered with sugar and jam, but he just stared in front of himself, his eyes pregnant with tears.

'Gaara…' he spoke up quietly as the other kids didn't move an inch – he knew very well that once they sat in such positions they didn't want to be bothered at all, so he didn't even try. 'You're not eating?...'

'I dun like it.' said the red haired kid, staring at his lap with saddened face.

'But you wanted it so much?'

'But I dun like it n'ymore.'

The man sighed and stretched to take it out of Gaara's hands, now sweetened and sticky.

'Then maybe your brother or sister would want to end it? Kankuro? Temari?'

He reached the bun towards both of them, waiting for one of them to take it from him, but both siblings shook their heads, as much as they could while still hiding their faces.

'No.'

'Take it. I don't like blueberries.'

'Me neither.'

He looked at them with pain, feeling bad he couldn't make it easier for any of them and slowly took the bun to look at it. It was half wet from saliva, torn at the middle, full of sugar and goo. Not what he ate but probably something he'd eat later, in hiding, so as not to torture his kids with the vision of it. He packed it carefully in foliage and opened the glove compartment, where it could fit. Once he closed it tight – Gaara started crying.

'God, have mercy on me…'

#+#+#+#+#+#

Once he got to work – it was a miracle he got it to his seat without being noticed. But that didn't mean he got away from his chief.

'Mr. Sabaku.' he said to him once he got close to his office 'I'm glad that you decided to join us at last. Do you have any interesting ideas of how to get out of the situation? You know how things are because you, of course. No? Not at all? Then it probably means you will be staying here right? How about… five hours? What, you can't? You can? But of course you can! Nobody does the longest work hours than you, Mr. Sabaku. It's really good that you agreed. Really good.' Then he moved on. He looked at the clock. He was not that much late. Not even four hours! He made it in three and a half, maybe forty minutes… And now, five hours… FIVE HOURS… of work.

He felt dizzy. There was no way possible to get to kindergarten at that hour and not see the Northern Star up above the head. That screamed 'abuse' - not giving kid dinner, forgetting about it, psychically and physically suffering and who knew what more… He had no other choice. He was cornered and the knife was dangerously close to his neck. He looked at the back of the chief and picked up a phone.

'Hello? Kindergarten 'Three hazelnuts'? Could you give me a list of phones of the parents whose kids attend the group b? Please, it's urgent.'

He looked nervously at the back of his chief. It seemed that the man had no intention to go back to his office at all and he could also turn and come back to him in any moment. But if he got caught red hande d- phoning privately somewhere. It would end badly. Such things were strictly forbidden. Especially for such an incompetent worker as him. He noted the number in silence, still watching his back in fear and quietly dialed the number. _'Beeep-'_ the chief stirred, ending the conversation and it seemed as if he was going to return. As if he had not had enough bad luck today. _'Beeep-'_

'C'mon, pick up…' he muttered to the phone while tapping his shoe on the floor nervously. He looked back towards the chief. Shit. He was obviously coming back; he was getting closer- _'Beeep-'-_he'd have to hang up, God, it made no sense, but he needed to make the call, he needed it to be done, he couldn't just let the woman call wherever she wanted, those were his kids! Damn it. He had to hang up, he couldn't call anywhere, he was hanging up-

'Ah, chief! Here you are, sir, I'm so glad I found you, I have this urgent project that I need to talk to you about right now…'

'Really? But I have urgent things to talk about with Mr. Sabaku…'

'It can't wait, it will take only a few seconds, chief, please…'

They both vanished behind a wall.

Daichi let go of the air he had been holding in and laid his head on the desk. _Thanks, Yura. I'm in your debt. I'm really, really…_ _'Beee-' 'click'_ He heard a voice. He finally heard a voice. And more over, it was the voice of the man from yesterday. It was a voice he recognized. He had made up many good reasons in order to make it sound heroic, meaningful and good - even threatening, but none of those came out of his mouth. He laid with his head on the desk and felt his tears - bitter against his throat as he swallowed; and listened to the questions uttered on the other side of the line.

And what if… what if miracles really did happen?... Then it would be a sin to not answer them when they came to their family. He gulped down the unsaid smart comment and went for what he really, really needed to say.

'Help…' And now he could only pray that his call for help wouldn't go unanswered.

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and it lasted more than the average three seconds that casual confusion warranted. After the pause, the blond man's voice finally worked again, this time it sounded more than just a little bit confused. 'H-…hello?'

'Are you tall, blond and Samaritan for no reason?'

There was another pause, though not as extended as the first one.

'Who is this? How did you get my number?'

'Through Santa Claus - he works in kindergarten. 'Three hazelnuts', sounds familiar?' Well, it seemed that the man had not recognized him as he was getting a hold of him just at first… call. He couldn't blame him, though. He probably knew what to expect at least to some extent but he had not expected him at all. 'My name is Sabaku Daichi and I am a father of Sabaku Gaara. We met yesterday, I believe.'

'Ah… Oh! Yeah!' there was finally some recognition in the voice and with it followed immediate relaxation. The tone changed completely to the same easy, friendly one from the previous day. 'Sorry, I thought it was a prank call or something… Is something wrong?'

He opened his mouth, but stopped, seeing as some Sajin brat walked by – you never knew when someone overheard too much of wrong parts of the conversation. He coughed lightly into his hand and readjusted his phone on the shoulder, pretending to take some notes from the other line.

'To tell the truth, Mr. Uzumaki… yes, there is a problem.' He looked around and frowned, stopping his notes. What was he doing? Did he really think that anyone was interested in what he wrote? People could easily overhear what he spoke just like that 'It seems… no it's obvious, that I have to stay longer at work again… not for long, really, just… just…'

He breathed. Who was he trying to convince – himself or God in Heaven?

'…Actually, for very long. Five hours. That means I will be late, I have to pick up the other kids as well. I have a small favor to ask…' He closed his eyes and took a breath. Somehow it got harder now. He really didn't know the man after all. 'Could you… could you take care of Gaara today?' he said, looking around. No, the chief was not back yet ' You don't have to take him home or feed him or anything… just sit with him there so nobody would think he is alone… especially the teachers… they all are very… protective…' Somehow he couldn't put it straight even to himself.

'Are you serious…?'

There was another pause on the line, but this one was interrupted much faster.

'Of course I'll take him home and feed him, how can you expect me to leave a little kid like that?' there was a sigh on the other side of the line and some sort of rustling sound. 'Well, you already have my number… do you have anything to write with? I'll give you my address. Just remember to call the school to tell them that Gaara-kun can come with me or you will have to bail me from jail for kidnapping before you get out of your shift.'

'Tell them you have my permission, tape it or something. I can't really phone anywhere from where I am now.' The pencil scribbled fast as he wrote down the address – he had never been there before, but it was good occasion to get to know new places. 'And please, don't overdo it. I really am short on money this year. Such is my luck.' He muttered, folding the piece of paper with the address and hiding it in his pocket. He looked around again. Still no danger in the horizon.

'Listen… don't forget about his teddy or he will go nuts… and please – no 'Funny bunies'. It might not end well.'

'I`ll have them call you, in a few hours, then.' the younger man said calmly. 'Good luck with your work, and call me again if you need anything else.'

The saffron haired man sighed, feeling as if a big weight had been lifted from his shoulders. No, nothing was all right. Yes, everything stayed just the same as before. But somehow, everything felt better.

'Thank you.' He whispered through his teeth and slowly laid the phone back in its base. It ringed quietly, giving of a signal he always recognized as stress that came with the business conversations he held in this place. But now it felt genuinely different. Because it meant that his family was safe. Still. With a tired, but steady smile – he got to work again. When chief came back – he had nothing on him. Maybe this day was not supposed to be labeled the worst day of his life after all.

Or maybe it was. It came suddenly, like all blows you don't expect. With a small difference – he should have actually expected this one. Just as he was done talking to some kindergarten caretaker, who, as predicted, called him ('My name is Asuma, Asuma Sarutobi… phleze, excooz mah mumbling but talkeen with too cigaretteh in mah mouf is still kinda hawd and ah don get too breakh four them soh ah hav'ta do too at onse, hahaha') and assured him that yes, Gaara was supposed to go with Uzumaki's family, the phone rang again.

And he didn't expect any calls. But that alone didn't even signify anything to him. How foolish he was. It had to be exhaustion. He hadn't slept for more than three hours in the past two days. Just like Gaara. Nightmares.

'Hello?' he asked with refreshed tone, smiling to anyone who might've troubled him after a nice 'talkeen'.

'Good afternoon, Daichi. Still at work? Ah, too bad, too bad…'

His smile froze on his lips. Yashamaru.

Shit.

'What do you want?' he muttered, looking around frantically. But luckily, no one who would have gotten suspicious was around 'I told you to not call me at work. What's happened?'

'Oh, but how could I not? I tried contacting you through your homeland's stationary phone and all I heard was 'the number you're trying to reach is unviable'… have you changed it again or forgotten to pay bills? For the hope of God, I hope it's not the latter, that would really do you no good, Daichi-kun.' He cursed. He forgot to pay the bills. How come? He always remembered paying them! Always when he had money… Well, maybe it was because this time he didn't have the money.

'What do you want.' He repeated licking his lips. His mouth suddenly felt dry and his skin felt itchy 'I have the work to do; I can't waste time with small talk.'

The voice on the other side laughed warmly, almost as if he was a silly oblivious child. He felt the hair rising at the base of his neck. He could almost feel the mistake he did.

'Such a hard worker you are, Daichi-kun.' So now it was 'Daichi-kun.' He swallowed, though his throat felt like a sand-paper 'But if you're there, in the middle of work, then… who is with the kids?'

'A… with the kids… the kids are with…' he spoke quickly, trying to find the right words or at least good ones. Nothing believable came to his mind. 'They're… they're…'

The most righteous thing to say would be that they were with Yashamaru because it was Yashamaru who could take care of them and had time as the only living family member. But he couldn't have that, right? After all – it was that sweet blond uncle who wanted to take the kids away from him. Their sweet blond… He stopped, starring at the note with the scribbled address.

'They're with uncle.' He spoke calmly, though he felt how his muscles budged at the words 'Safe. And sound.'

Dead silence answered him for a moment.

He heard the beginning of the laughter being cut off.

'What?' Yashamaru said a tone of disbelief 'But Daichi-kun, I am their uncle. Who did you give your innocent and harmless children to?'

'An uncle. A very trustworthy friend of mine.'

The disapproving click of a tongue could be heard on the other side this time.

'Very well.' He said in bitter, disapproving tone 'I hope then I can meet that u n c l e soon, Daichi.' Then the telephone clicked. He welcomed the beeping with a sigh and a feeling of fear - so much for a new family member.

#+#+#+#+#+#

He looked at it. He stared. And he couldn't believe it. It was huge. And so clean! And smelled so nice… That place, that flat where Naruto lived in. And it was so full of light and nice colors… so unlike his house.

'Teddy…' he murmured into the toy as he let go of the hand of that strange blond man who gave him a pear yesterday 'I think that we went to heaven. Act your age.'

He didn't really know what was supposed to mean, that 'acting your age' thing, but every time he entered some very important place with his father, daddy told him that and seemed to be very satisfied when he just walked with him quietly. Of course, he could've told teddy to be quiet, but somehow it sounded more important and more mature. Like his dad.

Standing beside the door, he peaked inside but didn't dare to go in. Somehow, he felt doubtful.

'But daddy… but daddy told me to not talk with strangers.' He said after having spent half an hour walking to some unknown place that he had no idea how to get back from. But somehow it didn't seem connected. 'And, and, to not go with them.' He added, though his face was already flushed with excitement. He skipped from foot to foot shyly while wriggling the plush in his hands. 'I-I'll wait here.'

Minato hadn't given the man's (Daiki? Daisuke? He was sure it started with D…) call much thought at first. He had been taking his mid-morning nap - also known as extended sleep as it was interrupted in order to take his favored son to daycare- so he had barely registered what the man said, scribbled 'pick up redhead' on the notepad he had next to his bed and gone right back to sleep until midday. It wasn't until he was done re-brushing his teeth and consumed a banana that he checked the sleep-scribbled notes and realized he had to call the preschool to let them known that he'd be taking Gaara home with him.

That's when he realized that he hadn't asked the man (Daishiro or Daitaro, perhaps…?) if Gaara had any allergies. Naruto wasn't allergic to anything he had made him eat so far, and he had been running allergic tests on him twice in the past three years just to be sure, but how could he know about the redhead? And just asking the kid wouldn't get him anywhere. But schools were supposed to keep records of those things, so he ended up asking the teacher while his overexcited kid went to inform his Best Friend (TM) that he'd be coming home with them, and he had practically dragged him home through the short distance that separated them from his flat.

'But daddy… but daddy told me to not talk with strangers. And, and, to not go with them. I-I'll wait here.' Naruto wouldn't have that, and he practically ripped the jacket off the redhead in his haste to push him through the door.

'Don't be silly, Kurenai-sensei told you that your dad had said it was okay for you to come, remember? And besides, besides, come, I want you to see room, and my games, and my bed and my-'

Minato covered the child's mouth and hugged him to himself so he would stop overwhelming the redhead, but Naruto kept talking, though muffled and he kept gesticulating as if he hadn't noticed. 'That's very true, Gaara-kun.' he said from his crouched position, smiling at the kid friendly. 'It's really dangerous to go with strangers and you should never do that. But it's also dangerous for little kids to stay out so late, and you know I'm Naruto's dad and your dad knows me too. I talked with him this morning and gave him my address, and he will come and pick you up as soon as he's done with work.'

Gaara stilled and looked at him as if he had heard some shocking news. And he probably had as he looked around, seemingly sucking up the realization.

'He will come for me here?'

Minato nodded.

'Yes, as soon a he`s done with work. He was worried because he has to stay a little later than usual, but as soon as he`s done, he`ll come."

Slowly, with a massive load of hesitance, the redhead stepped inside and walked closer, looking at Minato and wriggling the toy the same way he did when he had been standing outside. The blond man didn't seem to be suspicious, but he felt uneasy as he was never asked to go to this place and he felt intimidated.

He was wondering if he should tell him to not eat him because if they ate him daddy would get mad at them and mad daddy was really SCARY, he then remembered that he couldn't be that tasty because he didn't have anything good to eat and then, and then- His stomach churned, making a loud audible sound.

'Be quiet, teddy.' He said, his cheeks flushing pink as he looked at his feet. Some time ago father taught them that being hungry and asking for food every time they felt hungry was a shameful act and that it was really bad to admit it. True, he broke the rule today, but that was because he felt so hungry that his tears came to him and he just wanted to eat and… His stomach twisted some more, churning a bit.

'That's not me.' He said and hugged the plush even tighter while looking away. He could feel how the expression on his face got sadder and sadder. He didn't want anyone to know about it. Daddy would get mad again and a mad daddy was really, REALLY scary.

'I can see that.' Minato chuckled and loosened the hold on his own kid, (who gasped for air theatrically) and crouched lower so he was staring at the toy's height. 'Now, Teddy-san looks very hungry, Gaara-kun, and it is lunch time. We can't have that; I heard that teddy's have very nasty tempers when they get hungry. But I'm not sure what they eat…. Do you think he would like some spaghetti with tomato sauce?'

The redhead looked back at the blond, his gaze perplexed. What's 'spu-getee'?'

'Long noodles.' his friend replied, holding his hands apart more or less at the appropriate length of the pasta.

Gaara looked at the blond quizzically, trying to decipher how long such noodles would look like. And what would they look like on the table? The big man probably had very long plates. He curled closer to teddy, still not taking his gaze away from Naruto.

'Okay.' He said finally 'Teddy said he agrees.' And besides, he really wanted to see that kind of noodles.

Satisfied with the success of the suggestion, he shooed the kids off to play a bit in Naruto's room while he boiled the water and heated up some frozen sauce he had made a few weeks ago, While he waited for the noodles to be done, he finished cleaning up what he had left from last night. Minato had tried to tidy up the mess usually left over from work, but the pile of books and dictionaries that he was currently using were still in one of the corners, precariously balanced in three piles that almost reached Naruto's height. His notes were everywhere from the sofa to the telephone table, and he still couldn't figure out where he'd left his glasses and much less remember when he had seen them last time.

He'd just have to go with his old prescription until he found them. If he found them. The reason he had the new ones was that he'd lost the last ones. How could a single person lose three pairs in less than a year? He just shoved the papers onto the first half-empty drawer he found, finished clearing the table of the last vestiges of last night's 'inspirathron' and set the dishes in place. Once he judged the time to be about done, he called for the kids to go wash their hands and he heated the salsa. He was just about put the sauce on top of the noodles, when he remembered that he hadn't asked Gaara if he liked them and so he decided it was better to leave it and ask him when they ate. He already knew what he himself and his kid wanted.

'Did you wash your hands?' he asked distractedly as Naruto climbed up on the chair and stared expectantly at his plate.

'Yeees~'

'Show me.' Rolling his eyes in a way that just had to hurt, the blond showed his still wet hands to his father, receiving an appraising smile. 'Here we go.' he said, placing the salad bowl in the middle of the table and then leaving to get a saucer for the tomato sauce and a smaller bowl with some cheese.

'Gaara-kun, will you and Teddy-san want them like this, or with sauce?' he asked as he served the kid a medium ration. Not that he wasn't going to give him more, but it was always less of a mess when they had some room on the plate, not to mention it was a good way to make sure the food wouldn't get cold.

The redhead looked at the plate with curiosity, only to stare back at Minato, his face obviously confused. That was 'spu-getee'? But it looked just like in the shops… or maybe in the shops was what was here. He couldn't really remember all the food he didn't eat. They also didn't look long at all, all curled up on the plate. But this quickly went away as he sat down. He felt the nice smell of steaming warm food and looked at Minato again.

'Teddy says he likes it with sauce.' He added after a long pause, but then he opened his mouth again 'I'm not hungry.'

To emphasize his words he put his plush higher up on the table, but it was a little too late for hiding the loud sound coming from his stomach, but he played it out as if nothing happened.

'He is just a baby so he can be. I'm an adult.'

Minato laughed.

'I can see that, but it might be too hot for Teddy. You should try it first to make sure it's right, I heard in a story that teddy's are very picky on how hot their food has to be for them to eat it.'

'Really?' Naruto asked, standing up on his chair to pour himself some water. Minato stared, tempted to do it himself, but the kid seemed to have control of the situation, so he let him be.

'Gaara, do you want water or orange juice?' the child asked while holding up the water. Minato concentrated on adding some tomato to the dish and then cut the spaghetti in to small pieces so the kid wouldn't have any problem eating it, then he quickly did the same with his own kid's plate but adding a lot more of sauce on his.

'Ah, before I forget-' Minato disappeared for a moment, then came back with two large, bright orange napkins and quickly tied one around Naruto's neck, following through with the redhead. 'Eating spaghetti is a bit tricky, let's keep your clothes clean.'

'Okay.' The child said finally, smearing his hands on it as if they somehow got dirty in-between washing them in the sink and sitting on the chair. And actually a few fat, red stains could be seen on the napkin. He looked at Minato again; his gaze even more vigilant and he closed his mouth tight. 'I haven't done anything.' He said with determination. Then he glanced at Naruto and stared at him 'Not at all.'

Minato looked at the kid with a frown, then at his own. Naruto seemed to be busy pouring the water with a concentration worthy of a master surgeon in an open-skull surgery. 'Gaara-kun, did you get hurt?'

The redhead looked back at Minato, his gaze still full of awareness as if he was ready to get up and leap from the place. Why was the big blond suddenly looking at him like that? He acted as if nothing had happened so why was he acting like that? Had he been discovered?

'No.' he said with more force, hiding his hands behind himself as though he hid something 'Teddy is not going to get a napkin?'

'Teddies don`t make that much mess.' he looked at Naruto- still pouring the water. Almost drop by drop. 'Gaara-kun, did Naruto hurt you?'

Naruto nearly fell in his haste to turn around, but he had been expecting such a reaction so he caught the water easily.

'Daddy, I didn't!'

Gaara's eyes widened at the realization as he watched Naruto and Minato exchange stares. After hearing the question he stared back at the bigger blond, his lips half open in fear.

'No!' he squeaked finally, but seeing that it didn't seem to budge the older man, he finally leapt from his chair and ran towards Naruto, catching him like he always held his teddy and hugging him in the same protective way. 'No, no, no, no! I'm not hurt! He didn't do anything!' he repeated loudly, staring at the blond as if he almost changed into a children eating dragon. 'I won't do that again! I promise! But he didn't do anything!'

Minato couldn`t help but smile a little, even though he mostly kept his unconvinced stare.

'What is that red thing, then? What happened?'

The redhead stilled then flushed a little and moved, hiding his face behind Naruto so he couldn't be visible, but still he held on to the blond like he was afraid of letting go.

'I didn't do anything.' He spoke again shyly but stubbornly and got quiet, as if that had explained everything. After three or maybe four long and pregnant seconds a very quiet, but yet very loud 'splat' could be heard.

That was it for his cover. It would seem that running up to Naruto that fast wasn't that great of an idea. Not only did it make his pants soak faster, but it also let go of few noodles that was between him and chair, like a very visible and undeniable evidence of his actions. Why couldn't this man, for example make potatoes for dinner? Potatoes weren't such slick things once you got them into your pockets!

Minato stared at the table for several moments, his brain slowly catching up with what had happened. He couldn't help it then - he started laughing.

'Gaara-kun.' he said once he got himself under control. 'I made enough spaghetti for you, Naruto, Teddy and me. And I think there's even going to be leftovers, see?'

He pointed at the salad bowl that was still nearly full despite that both plates had already been served.

'You don't need to take it home to eat. Besides, it will be cold by then. Naru-' the blond perked up, surprisingly enough still not protesting against being clutched to the redhead that way. 'Go help Gaara get changed and lend him one of your pants, I'll clean those after lunch.' He didn't want to have to give the kid back in such a terrible state the first time he had been allowed to come to someone's home.

'Okaaay.' his son jumped down the chair and dragged the redhead back to the room, saying something along the lines of taking pasta only when you had a tapper at hand. He decided to give the kid`s plates a run on the microwave while they got changed as they were only lukewarm, and set on cleaning the mess on the floor before they could spread it_. Linoleum_, was there anything more beautiful in the world? You could wipe linoleum with a tissue and it wouldn't leave a stain. Well, maybe permanent ink would, he thought. He gave a large black spat close to the door a guilty look. Better there than the carpet anyway.


	2. 2: Cookies

_Once upon a time there was a carrot. A carrot who couldn't dance. He got wrong the letters A, B and C completely wrong. So he was a sad carrot. But then the apple has showed up! And the apple told them that if they told the magic spell, they could help the carrot! So he repeated loud and clear after apple: A, B, C, and apple turned into carrot. And then both carrot danced of to the tune that went along the lines: Apple, Be Carrot and Dance…_ He didn't know what's happened after that. He just cuddled up to the teddy and let his eyes fall close, leading him to a warm dreamland where he hasn't been from some time.

When he woke up, the lights has been very bright and they didn't seem to be very recognizable at all. He looked around, not recognizing the place, feeling the fear creeping over him with every turn he made.

'Daddy?' he asked in squeaky tone, hopping off the soft sofa and spotting no parental figure around. 'Daddy!'

He started running, looking at the places that seemed vaguely similar but weren't his home at all. Once he saw no father figure in all of the rooms he looked to (only two were opened) he just stood on the place, clutched on his shirt and let out a loud cry.

'Daddyyy!'

Where was he? He was always there when he woke up! And now he was in some strange place he didn't remember how he got in and he didn't even know where was exit and there was no Kankuro and Temari and his pants were missing… That was scary! He wanted to go home!

'Aaannn~~!'

#+#+#+#+#+#

Five hours. The work time he got slowly got the best of him. Really, who could've expect on him to work his best after ten hours? And yet he did the best he could and got out of the place just in the nick of time. If he got any later – the janitor would probably lock him within the place along with the place. What a day.

He spent most of it trying to concentrate and shun the awful surprise he got today for no apparent reason, with poor results. Yashamaru was a slick piece of soap and he was always a little more unpredictable than he wished he was. Karura was a step before him too, but her unpredictableness always left him some space for wondering. Yashamaru on the other hand – was a step and a half and that 'half' was usually beyond his imagination. That's why every encounter was a play of losing big or losing little. _And I'd tear my phone off the wall if it rang more than five times to me..._

He steered the car on the street only half-way concentrated, chewing on the dried up 'funny buny' which tasted awfully sweet for his tastes and turned to the pointed address. It wasn't very far from the kindergarten itself so he should've no problems in reaching it… But before that – he had other business to attend.

And sweet gods, that really was an awful experience. Not that he had to explain himself, because he never did – he taught his kids well to not question him and not make him explain himself until he felt he had to – it was his upper hand at that point of life. But Temari looked like if she was sleeping on the hard surface of the desk, her homework already done and long forgotten, scribbled with some strange drawings of some teddy bear, bunny and onion-headed man. Though, in his opinion it looked more like a pineapple, but since she wrote 'Stoopid onion-breath' it probably had to be onion. Such a talented baby girl he had. He helped her pack and actually carried her to the car as she seemed to be drained and then he left to another important place.

Kankuro looked again like if he was crying and shot a glare full of blame toward him. He looked back with observing gaze and sat down, opening his arms for one of those rare cuddles he gave off when no one saw. Kankuro, being a stubborn and though boy sat in the corner for ten seconds longer until he leapt to him shouting something about hating him and hating the school and hating everyone and the most the teacher who made him sit in the corner again and didn't listen to his explanations of getting his brother a sweet bun. He let him cry and for rare occasions let him be harsh on him also as he knew that Kankuro, from time to time, just had to blow it off somewhere and if anything, was devoted to him most from all kids he had. Maybe it was fault of features or maybe not. But it was there.

And besides, he really had to talk to this Gekkou-sensei, as he seemed to ignore perfectly good parental explanations. It wasn't his fault for newspaper looking untrustworthy, but teachers were supposed to be better than that. He walked with Kankuro by hand, letting him babble about his day at school and denying him having a dog yet once again and packed him to the car where Temari was sleeping against her schoolbag. Good. Now he could go for the youngest of his children.

Once he parked the car, he, of course had problems reaching it. Not many, as he only took one house for another, but that was mostly his condition kicking in. After sitting whole day long at numbers easily '24' could be mistaken for '42'. Or even '37' if he didn't look close enough. Life. He never knew if the battle he lost was a battle or maybe a war.

But even before he reached for the bell, it made him frown. Through the thick wood and plastic he heard muffled 'daddy' that sounded very much like the voice of his own son. And a very unhappy one at that. He felt uneasiness starting to creep at the base of his neck and pushed the bell only a little longer than necessary and only twice as hard. He couldn't judge before he saw, right? But it sounded so miserable… But at least he knew he was not mistaking doors anymore.

It took several seconds before the door opened, a very worried looking blond father, though his expression did become more relaxed after he recognized them man.

'Thank God you're here.' he said, clearly relieved and moving aside so the older man could get in, not that he had to go very far to see what was happening. 'I was about to call you, I don't know what happened… He fell asleep while watching some show on the TV and when he woke up he just started crying- I don't know what's wrong with him.'

He had tried to ask him what was wrong, but the boy just kept crying for his father.

The redhead was crouched on the floor wailing while the younger blond was crouched next to him, wearing a hoodie that obviously belonged to his father, considering it came below his knees, and that apparently had been put in a hurry, as Naruto's hair was still wet and trailing droplets down his neck. He'd been having a shower as there wasn't very much to do with Gaara sleeping and being rather sleepy himself, but he had ran out of the bathroom as soon as he heard Gaara going on hysterics. Not that he was being more successful on calming down his friend or understanding what was wrong, but at least he let him close. He looked up at the approaching figures, recognizing the older man a quickly shook the redhead.

'See, I told your dad would be here soon!'

The redhead immediately stopped crying, looking at the figure in front of him, then he hiccupped and let out a long bawl, springing to his feet and running to Daichi like if there was no tomorrow. The saffron haired man didn't even look closely at his youngest as he just crossed the space between them in less than two seconds and plastered himself to his knees, wetting his pants with tears and his snot.

'Daddyyy!~~~'

He felt his cheek going red from embarrassment, then pale at the realization. Was the kid hurt? He didn't seem to be, but you never knew. Gaara was very hidden when it came to telling what was wrong. He crouched down, extending his hands, but even with that the red haired child was quicker, catching on his neck with needy hands and sticking to them like a little squid, still sobbing. Before he could straighten up with him in his arms he had already wetted the shirt and part of neck.

Kids. He stroked his head as it made miracles and looked at Naruto, feeling that if anything, Gaara made a big ruckus, because the other kid seemed to be half-messed up from the rush. He looked at him, expecting explanations, but it seemed the kid was still too shocked about… uh, he didn't know. Him not being here? If yes, that meant he cried all day… that's not really what he wanted to happen to his kids. Not that he had any other choice – Gaara was very insecure and attached to him, though nobody would expect that after the calm boy who stayed far away from him whole day in kindergarten.

'It's okay, I'm here…' he murmured, turning to the other blond male, looking at him with crestfallen expression 'I'm really sorry, if I knew this would've happen… Gaara, stop it already, that's so not like boy to cry that mu-'

He stopped an looked at his youngest closer. What. Was. That. Gaara wore pants. But not his own pants. A bright orange polka-dotted pants that must've come from circus. Obviously from circus. He couldn't think of any other place where people wore such pants. But if he wore not his own pants, then it meant that…

…he started wetting himself again? Gods, not again…

'I'm sorry.' He whimpered, looking at Minato with helpless expression 'I'll pay for any carpet he messed up if he did…'

But for the love of gods, he hoped he didn't.

'Sorry, what…? Oh, no, no, it's nothing like that.' Minato was kneeling in front of his own kid and was busy rubbing his head with a towel despite the boy's protests. When he finally caught on what the older man meant, he stopped and picked up his own kid, placing him at the hips with practiced ease. 'He just had a little accident during lunch with the food. He just started crying a few moments ago, he behaved really well. He's a really good kid.'

Daichi slowly lifted his eyebrow and looked at Gaara, stopping the stroking. The kid has seemed to calm down, but still was plastered to him like if any ounce of air between them would prevail doom.

'So you are a really good kid, eh?' he drawled. Gaara slowly turned his puffy and pink face to him, tightening the grip around his neck.

'You don't like me anymore?' he asked in tiny voice, looking at him with those big, Karura-ish eyes. He felt his neck redden ever again.

'Don't be stupid, Gaara.' He said with a nervous laughter and turned to Minato again. Gaara whimpered again. 'What do you mean accident? He didn't broke anything right? Right?'

'-m sorry…' muttered the redhead and cuddled up to him again. He felt his cheeks going a very unpleasant red from embarrassment. Real men didn't hug their kids like hysterical mothers for gods', sake!... 'Don't leave me again, I will be good ki-'

'WHAT accident?' Daichi broke off into another nervous laughter as it seemed that Gaara wanted to go extra fuzzy just right now. In front of everyone!...

'Just some spaghetti falling here and there, nothing to worry about.' Minato smiled, apparently oblivious to the redhead's discomfort as cuddling his own kid didn't seem to be any issue to him. Sure, Naruto wasn't in hysterics, but the casual way he had an arm wrapped around the blond's neck clearly stated that the action was uncommon. 'Really. I wish my own would behave that well in other places.'

'I'm good…' the blond protested, giving his father a deeply offended look.

'I know you are, Naru, just as much as you are a walking invite for disaster. Remember the library?'

Apparently he did, considering he reddened and pouted even more fiercely, but that was what the father had wanted, as he gave the boy a smug smile in return, before turning to the older man again.

'Oh, I washed the pants, but they're still drying… here, let me get them for you.' Leaving his kid back down, he disappeared down the aisle and into one of the closed rooms. Naruto stared up at the man and his friend for several seconds, frowning more and more before, stomping down his foot once and crossing his arms, a rather comical sight considering the sleeves fell down way past his hands.

'Gaara, stop crying or your dad will think I was mean to you!'

Daichi looked at him, his eyes widening lightly in impression. Thought the act seemed rather comical, it also were an act of bravery considering that he wasn't very liked by kids. He crouched, still holding Gaara in his hands who turned to Naruto with glinting eyes.

'And were you?' he asked with a dangerous smile. The redhead started wriggling until he came down to earth and he ran behind Naruto, catching him like a toy that was laying forgotten in the middle of hallway and looked at him pleadingly.

'No, he wasn't!' he said, shaking his head frantically 'H-he gave me pants and all…'

Daichi narrowed his eyes. Really, if that was the reason he actually should've push the blond for such hideous taste. But whom he was for lecturing not his own kids.

'Then what, maybe we will take him home and call him Binks and feed him everyday…' he said, looking at the brave posture. But he felt a little crept out as Gaara's eyes flashed with interest. '…though maybe not. And I hope, Naruto, that you will never be mean to Gaara, he is my precious child. Or I will eat you.' Gaara gasped at the image his little mind provided and cuddled to Naruto close.

'Listen to him. He is scary then!...'

For a kid his age, Naruto was unusually docile about another kid clutching at him so often and seedily. He really didn't mind, as being supportive was part of the Package of being a Best Friend. They even looked rather fitting together, Gaara with his average shirt and the borrowed blindness-inducing pajama pants and Naruto with a hoodie that was so big on him it looked more like a bag the kid had been haphazardly showed in.

The blond, who up until now had been staring at the older man in distrust, though not fearfully, now did widen his eyes and take a step back, though he still reminded in front of the redhead.

'M… My daddy wouldn't let you…' he murmured, though he looked more like if he would bolt if threatened rather than wait to test that theory.

'Wouldn't let what?' The blond's father was back, carrying a bag where the washed (though still rather wet) pants were kept. 'Here, Gaara-kun, you forgot him in the room.' He said, giving the well-used teddy back to his owner, giving an absent ruffle to the redhead and giving back the bag to the redhead's father.

'Sorry, I didn't have time to put them in the drier… just let him keep Naruto's pants, we can get them back later.' He said, smiling a little apologetically 'Were you able to fix your problems at work?.'

'The problem at work, um, yeah, of course…' The other man looked at him dazedly, obviously distracted from some his thoughts. The red haired kid took the plush quickly, hugging it to himself with panicked moves, like if something or someone would tear it away from him once he let go of it already. 'The work, the work…'

At the work the chief has looked upon him and distracted him every hour looking him at hands and finally resumed everything with gentle, but very sardonic tone, suggesting very visibly that Daichi was not the best worker and not the youngest worker and that if he didn't speed up or reorganize his schedule there were 'many promising flowers of youth out there only waiting to be picked up to work vigorously.' Daichi gritted his teeth but nodded obediently, throwing out polite agreements and promising to be better, younger and more beautiful, even if to do all of that he needed money which…

He actually was not going to be given this month because it seemed that the place was having financial problems and people were being cut of their payment. Of course, not everyone and not everything but… It was not counted in percents. It was counted in money. And it was stated loud and clear a few days ago that will be not little and won't be ratal. Some people murmured quietly that it would be '100' Euros or maybe '150' Euros and with every sum he gritted his teeth, calculating how to live off it, cutting the needs to the only most important ones and cutting every piece of unbought bread on four, six, eight pieces…

When somebody murmured '180' Euros, he felt the fear rising on the back of his throat. He was one of the lowest paid workers there, not the most low, but not very above the low level also. It was all because, even if he was skilled and worked on a high stool, he was constantly late, failing the work he should be able to do without blink of an eye and sleeping during the working hours. The boss, not wanting to lose his kind of thinking didn't fire him, but kept on cutting on his money, free days, allowances and 'bonuses' until he was left with very little. And he couldn't leave on his own because he'd fall into debt written in contract that would make him and his family live on the street. Not that he had anywhere to go. People in his age didn't find much better paid work anyway.

'And oh, you haven't been there when that was announced, Mr. Sabaku… then let me allow to tell you then.' Was told to him once the chief was ending his working hours and leaving him off to work for another two under the supervision of cameras 'The money that will be cut from payment this month won't be paid out for at least next three months as it seems that crisis is reaching up high to our products… but don't worry, I doubt that it will grow up. We can't let our people to starve, right?' He looked at the uneasy smile that seemed to wear off the chief. All in all, they weren't on friendly terms but they were not enemies too. It was solely his life that pushed him into that poor state, not otherwise.

'But with good luck we can expect rising after that… don't worry, we shall all manage. Oh, and the cutting from payment this month… it's 230 Euros. Good night.' Daichi felt his fingers going numb on the keyboard. His payment reached now 280 Euros. 50 Euros were enough to last for two weeks maybe. And only if he starved and made his kids starve. Like if they weren't hungry already. He remembered that and felt his blood going cold again.

Then he looked at Gaara who, besides being a little afraid and puffy from crying, seemed to be also taken care of well. The man probably gave him dinner he won't be able to afford for his kids for some time now. He swallowed and looked at the blond again, taking Gaara's pants from him.

'Can he… could it be possible for him…' he asked, swallowing and feeling how dry his mouth were 'To be picked up by you for upcoming week at least? It seems I won't be able to pick him up too early, the company is in need for workers…'

The redhead stared at him with big eyes, then ran to him and hugged himself to his leg.

'You won't be picking me up?' he asked, then his face grimaced in sadness again 'Don't leave me, daddyyy…' Daichi ignored him.

'Could you, please?...'

Minato seemed a little concerned- more than anything by the way the older man was looking at him, not by the request itself. He looked rather desperate, and even though he wouldn't pry on the reasons, he couldn't help wondering. Naruto was staring at the man with wide, big eyes and looking like if he definitely liked the idea, so acceptance of the idea definitely wasn't to be rejected, but…

'That wouldn't be a problem.' he said, looking down at the red-haired child. 'I'm at home most of the day, but I work from six p.m. until around ten p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. I leave Naru with a sitter those days; he's really capable and never had a problem with Naru before, but I'd have to ask him if he feels he can take another kid.'

He didn't think Iruka-kun would have a problem with it, but he couldn't just assume without asking. And besides, some parents didn't feel very secure with a sixteen-year-old taking care of their babies. He hadn't been the first time he had to leave him, as that scar across his nose sincerely did nothing to calm him, despite the teen's apparently soft behavior… But the parents from the building had recommended him, and Naruto, who rarely obeyed anyone but him had managed to be left alone for over 4 hours without running away, suffering some accident, getting lost or kidnapped, so he had decided every bit of praise he had heard about Iruka-kun was not only the plain truth, but far too little for what he really deserved.

'Just let me know when you want me to pick him up and what time you should be coming up for him and I'll arrange things. I can give the sitter a call tomorrow and find out. I don't think he would have a problem, Gaara-kun is a really well behaved kid.'

'The time would be the average picking hour at their kindergarten… half past twelve, I guess?...' he said, helplessly. He was late so many times in a row he wasn't sure anymore. 'I will be very grateful and I will pay for nanny, so… so… thank you.'

The other man closed his eyes for a moment. Ugly lie was a lie, but he had to be sure that the other man wouldn't suddenly change his mind, he'd think up some excuses for payment later. Leaning on people because of being poor was rather lowering and he still had hopes that was only a moment in their life, not a constant downhill, so he decided not to dwell on it, wanting to just live through it and close it off as a dark and untold piece of their life. Not everyone had to know he was not managing with everything actually.

He crouched down.

'Listen, Gaara.' He spoke in a calm, tired tone 'Daddy needs to work a little longer and won't be able to pick you up so early as he did before.' He said, gritting through another blatant lie. _'Early'_, yeah. 'So from now on you will be going with Mr. Uzumaki and Naruto and wait for me here. Cold days are coming and playing outside the kindergarten won't be as good as it was before. You will play with Naruto, maybe eat something…' The red haired kid looked at him, still unhappy, clutching at the teddy bear as if it was made of gold.

'But you will come for me?'

It seemed that only that mattered for the little kid. Gods knew why.

'Yes, Gaara, I will come for you after that.' He told, stroking his head twice to calm him down as he seemed to be a little panicked still 'Just wait for me, okay?'

'Okay.'

'Good.' He got up from his knees and looked at Minato and Naruto. Yes, he took enough of time with that. And even if fate was not merciful on him at all, it seemed that not all went wrong on the way. He thanked them again and took the piece of cloth along with bag promising to give it back and took Gaara by hand and marched out to the car. In the middle of walking there the red haired kid finally opened up and started talking about what he did

It seemed it was a place that provided a full service of 'happy home', along with meals, company and care. Nothing a single nanny would give. He didn't appreciate giving them so much free time and almost little to none when it came to early education, but it seemed Minato let his kid run free without that. And maybe it was better, for now at least. Gaara was pretty stressed and needed some loose time without being hungry and alone.

He blinged his car and opened the door. When he left, Temari slept and Kankuro counted dots on the ceiling. Now Kankuro was sound asleep and Temari watched him through the window of the car with sharp stare. Yes, she was so like her mother and yet so like him. All lied in details.

'Hi, Gaara.' she said in a hushed tone when he opened the doors and helped the kid to get inside 'Where have you been?'

'With Naruto.' Said the redhead. He looked at them for a moment, wanting to tell him it was 'at', not 'with', but being too tired to make a ruckus there. He started the car.

'Who is Naruto?' The redhead looked at her, then looked at the ceiling deep in thought. He turned the car, making Kankuro fall lightly on his side. The car stopped and moved forward, toward the street.

He looked at the statistics. At least he had enough gas to not worry about if for the upcoming week or two.

'Daddy.'

'What is it, Gaara?' he asked, listening only halfheartedly as the car passed him on the front, making only short openings and he had to move quickly with a lot of attention to not let it crash with them if he wanted to get onto the main street.

'Who is Naruto?'

He turned a car, cursing when one of the other cars beeped at him for no reason and moved it forward, unblocking the passage. He breathed the air out.

'A friend, I guess.' He said and glanced at the mirror. The redhead looked at him with thoughtful glare and looked at Temari.

'A friend.' He said and propped the teddy up 'We played the Bubbler together. It was fun.'

'What's Bubbler?'

'A game. On plaah-stay-tion. He has a lot of them.' He turned the car into another street. They weren't that far from home now. 'And I ate spugeetee. You know what's supgetee? It's a lot and lot and lot of noodles with blood on it.'

'Blood?'

'Tomatoes, Temari.' He added, not wanting Gaara to make her think some strange things 'Gaara, people don't eat blood with noodles.'

'Naruto said it looked like blood.'

'If it looks like blood doesn't mean it is blood.' The redhead looked at him like if he heard something new, then propped his teddy again and looked at the back window. Then he sat on the place again.

'We ate cookies too.' He spoke again 'And I got warm paint. Not like in garden. They don't have warm paint there.'

'Paint?'

'It looked like our walls.'

Daichi frowned, stopping at the lights. Paint? At kindergarten?

'Do you mean milk, Gaara?'

'Yes.'

'Then why are you calling it 'paint'?'

'Naruto said it looked like one.'

Daichi sighed. It seemed that being acquaintances with Uzumaki's would cost some price also.

'It's milk, Gaara.'

'We had fruits too.' He glanced at the mirror. Temari looked vaguely unhappy at this point of the talking. Before he could look back at the road she caught his gaze and leaned on his chair.

'Daddy, can I go with him next time?' He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say. He wasn't expecting that. Actually, the thought of his other kids wanting to join Gaara hadn't crossed his mind for once.

'I'm afraid not, Temari.' he said, moving the car forward as the green light blinked at them 'It's Gaara's friend, not yours…'

'I can make friends with him too.'

'I can't take you to them, Temari.'

'Why not?'

He looked forward, trying to find accurate words. How to explain the girl that it would be too much to ask from someone he barely knew? He'd have to tell her about their financial problems and she was too young to know about that. He turned the car again and got inside the known spot, stopping the car.

'Because your school is too far away and you end your lessons much later than Gaara ends his time at kindergarten. This would be too troublesome to ask Mr. Uzumaki to pick you up too. Also, think about Kankuro. How would he feel once he'd know you both are being picked up by Mr. Uzumaki to his home? He would want to go too and that would really be too much to ask of.'

He looked at the mirror. Temari didn't sit down at the place, though it was visible she understood what was he talking about. He undid his belt and turned off the engine.

'But daddy…'

'What?' he glanced back at Temari who still sat at the same position with the begging grimace on her face.

'…I want to eat noodles too.'

He looked at her, feeling yet again hopeless, but he couldn't do much about it. He stroked her blonde hair, touching lightly the two of her four pigtails and looked at her with serious face.

'You will eat noodles, I promise. Be patient, Temari.'

She nodded, obviously not very convinced as she was the oldest and seemed to get the most from the whole situation, but she sat down. He looked at the three of them sitting down in the place and opened the door.

'Wait here, I have to block the wheels.' Both Temari and Gaara nodded, Kankuro was still asleep. He got out of the car and started searching in his boot. Once a good friend of his worked in the police and was getting rid of valid wheel blocks that were used to stop people who parked at the wrong spot to make them pay their fines. His car was at this point of life the most expensive object he had and nothing helped more than a little lie that kept robbers away from even trying to break to the 'blocked car.'

The redhead looked at him, observing him through the back window then sat down and looked at Kankuro. Then, without the warning, simply pushed him, waking him up instantly.

'Wha… whazziizzit…?' slurred the boy, looking dazedly at the redhead. Temari glared at her younger brother from above,

'Why did you do that?' she asked, looking at Kankuro 'He was not doing anything by sleeping!'

Gaara looked at her, a little intimidated by his actions but then he smiled and put one of his little fingers close to his mouth, imitating the action that teachers at kindergarten did when they wanted all of them to be silent and propped up his teddy once again. Then he turned it upside down and opened the little, old zip, making the teddy hunch a little as it not held him tight anymore. Then he dug in and took out two, a little damaged, but still edible cookies.

'One for you.' He said, giving it to Temari 'And one for you.' The next one landed on Kankuro's lap. The stared at it as Gaara again imitated the 'put finger on his mouth' action and smiled to himself, dangling his legs and closing the zip again. They looked both at each other and quickly ate the cookies, so when Daichi opened the door to let them out, nobody would even think there were any cookies inside ever.

Somehow the bitterness from the morning lightened and vanished into thin air. It seemed that Gaara was not such a spoiled kid after all. They smiled at him, going to home and Gaara smiled at them, the whole action drawing Daichi's attention.

'Something's happened?' he asked them, seeing such a light mood suddenly for no reason.

'Nothing.' Answered Kankuro.

'We're happy we're home' added Temari. 'Isn't that right, Gaara?'

Gaara giggled in response. Daichi frowned, spotting the obvious lies, but letting go of it. If they were happy, so was he. He took Kankuro's hand and led them inside the home. Another strange day of his life has come to an end.


	3. 3: Mousy

Weeks passed like that. From Monday through Friday, Naruto and his red-haired friend would be picked up from kinder by the blond's father and spent there anywhere between two and seven hours, the available time for Daichi (as Minato finally found the man's name to be) being completely unpredictable. The first week it was a little harder, considering that Gaara got a little upset when it got dark and started asking when his father would pick him up, but as the situation became more of a routine, the kid seemed to realize he wouldn't just be abandoned there and started to relax and enjoy more the situation. So did Minato.

He was the kind of people that truly enjoyed being with kids, so he really didn't have a problem taking care of the redhead, not to mention the poor thing seemed to need it. He didn't really know what the situation at his house was, but from what little he heard from him and his father when he came to pick him up was at least mildly worrying. And besides, other than cooking lunch and some afternoon snack for them, there wasn't much he needed to do, as Naruto seemed to prefer the company of a kid his age rather than his father, so Minato not had a bit more time to dedicate to research and working out some things that he still hadn't been able to round up from lack of time and willpower.

As he had expected, Iruka had quickly agreed to take care of the kids. Despite his slightly untrustworthy appearance, Umino was the most responsible teen Minato had met, especially when he remembered what he himself had been doing at that age. Having lost his parents just a few years prior in a traffic accident, the young brunette had managed to pick up his life completely by his own, and now he was studying and working so he could afford colleague in the future. Minato was willing to admit he was a little paranoid about how well taken care of his son was (though he also told himself he had good reasons to be) but he sincerely couldn't find a fault on the way of treating with children the boy had, not only after seeing the result, but also extensively questioning his kid to make sure he was the appropriate choice. Iruka also hadn't wanted to ask for more payment, as he argued that he would be spending the exact same amount of time at the house, and that's what he had told Gaara's father, even when he had doubled the boy's salary behind his back. He could easily afford it and had been looking for a way to give him a rise, despite the kid not wanting to accept it, and that way everyone was satisfied.

#+#+#+#+#+#

It was a pretty day. Pretty day started as any average day besides the fact that father woke up only her and gave her a list of 'do's and 'not to do's, let her drink a little of his own coffee (without milk as there was no milk at house) and left the place. She wished him a good day at work and went to dress herself and checked on her brothers. Kankuro slept soundly, almost naked, so she tucked him in the covers like she saw on one movie (she thought it was a very nice gesture and since there was no mom in the house and she was a girl she could also start doing that). Gaara also lied under the covers in his nice light green pajamas and slept quietly.

Here for a change she uncovered him a bit since he seemed to be a little too hot and father was getting nervous from how Gaara seemed to handle. Because three days ago Gaara got sick.

Not much, very little in comparison to one guy in her class who was all pink and coughed so loud nobody could hear the teacher when he did, but he still was a little warmer and sniffed every once in awhile. Since then father stopped getting him to kindergarten and stayed with him at home for two days, playing with him and taking care of him. The sickness didn't grow but it changed a bit into light coughing and father decided that even on Friday Gaara couldn't go to kindergarten. Sadly, daddy's boss said he couldn't stay with him anymore, but then it came out that all schools had a holiday the day after so she and Kankuro could keep Gaara's company. Well, more like she could take care of both of them since she was old enough to do that and father found her a good girl and a very mature one.

She agreed, of course, feeling proud for that and knowing the best that if anything, she was able to handle both of her brothers alone for one day. Daddy promised her to buy this nice ribbon for hair if she did good and she agreed even if she didn't really need that. Who did? That stuff was for little girls who wanted to have boys, and she didn't want to have any. Not because there wasn't any good boy in her class. It was only because no boy was just as good as her father was. She promised herself to marry him one day and she knew she would. She didn't need any ribbons.

But there was no time to deny as she saw that her father needed to promise it to her and she was secretly happy that her father would be happy to find out she doesn't really want it. He knew that father for some odd reason, never had enough money so he counted every cent. She looked at the clock. Eleven a.m. And she still hadn't ate anything.

She wandered around, looking through drawers to find something edible to eat, but it seemed that everything that could be eatable was juice from onions (that was Gaara's) and one big green apple (that was all of theirs, but only allowed after the one p.m. as it was supposed to fill their tummies). It seemed that yet again she was reduced to her bag of cornflakes that Gaara gave both of them. He also gave them pieces of potatoes, but they were eaten quickly as everything he gave them in the car. She sighed and got back to her room and started doing her homework. The hours passed.

Near one p.m. Kankuro woke up. It was just in time for eating and he never really slept through any hour so she already knew that. That got her to peel the apple from the skin (Kankuro ate the peels quickly) and cut it in three. They ate some of their pieces, when Kankuro ran off as he saw that nobody changed the pot in the bathroom (it leaked water for last five days and the tech was supposed to come from some time now, but it seemed he couldn't have time or… something. They didn't know, the phone was still off so nobody rang to them and father was talking everything out at work). She came after him and checked everything but there was no change, beside the fact that the paint of the walls was starting to peel off. The mirror was still broken and the trap for mice was still untouched.

It seemed that mice didn't like pieces of wood after all, even if Kankuro painted it at school so it looked almost like real piece of cheese. They got out, talking it out back and forth as there was nothing else to do. Electricity was still not working so there was no TV and all of their books were read anyway. Well, maybe not all ALL, but daddy forbid them to touch some of them so they really couldn't do anything with it. The clock showed twenty minutes past first p.m. so there were almost four hours to their favorite show on the radio and there was still nothing to eat. A very boring day indeed.

'I want to go play with dog.' said Kankuro, looking at her pleadingly. She knew very well whom Kankuro meant and why he wanted to go there (he wanted to have an animal since he was three and even as he grew up the wish never seemed to waver) but she refused. He was on her charge today and she couldn't let him go as she wouldn't be able to go with him. And daddy would be very angry if he would do something to himself. And even if she did go with him – who would stay with Gaara? Getting out a sick redhead was out of question (she remembered as father forbade her to go out once she had 'mumps' or something like that). Kankuro sighed dramatically and went back to his room to read his comics for the umpteenth time. Lucky him.

As a little baby he didn't have much homework to do while she had five quests from math, one essay from Japanese and a remembrance of the song which she was supposed to be able both to sing and to play on her flute. Actually, it was Kankuro's flute, but her older-younger brother made himself another one so she owned it for herself. She envied him a little. But what could she do? She was mature already and mature people had many more problems in their lives. With a sigh she got to the work and started doing the first quest from algebra.

When three p.m. was getting near, Gaara woke up. It was nothing unusual for him to get up so late once he could. His irregular way of sleeping that contained nightmares of strange plot and sleepless nights made him unsteady when it came to times of getting up. They learned long time ago to not wake him up as once they did, father made them get Gaara to sleep for whole week and didn't help them at all. They managed to get him to sleep only once. That's why they never bothered him after that.

They heard him from the hallway as he walked around, looking for father, so they abandoned their doings to prevent the upcoming storm. And just in the nick of time, the redhead was already on brim of tears. But at least he listened and calmed down, so the problem vanished before it started existing at all. Happily, Kankuro got back to reading his comics and she was left with Gaara to feed him. She gave him the remaining bits of apple and fed him with the onion's syrup ('good for coughing' as daddy said). Her brother wasn't very happy and agreed only after she fed teddy with it (the stain luckily came out as invisible after drying up. Not that another bit of dirt was making any difference on that dirtied up toy).

He grimaced comically after that, but didn't make any comments beside one 'Bleh.' And left the table to read comics with Kankuro. She was happy with that as she could do her homework in peace.

At quarter past five they turned on the radio (interrupting her homework yet again – but she was bored by it already and there was not much of it – only that stupid song which she remembered half of already) and listened to audition about ghosts and mermaids. She liked the mermaid the most as it was portrayed as a 'beautiful water creature with long blonde hair who sang the most beautiful songs on this side of country'. Kankuro disagreed, talking about the might ghost of Captain Hook and liking when he laughed the most and said 'arrr'. He seemed to be excited about the fact that his leg was wooden and decided to make himself one so he could act just like him. Gaara neither agreed and disagreed with both of them as he just listened to the whole audition with flushed cheeks and glinting eyes.

The story was a little scary so they cuddled up and Kankuro even started wondering if not to turn the radio off when Hook caught the mermaid and wanted to cook her like every fish he ate at the dinner, but all in all it ended up in vain as the prince (who was late again as he seemed to be always late through whole story – either was it when it came to seeing the beautiful mermaid or even eating a dinner, but all was because he was just the most lazy from all his seven brothers) freed her and let her live in the sea. Kankuro seemed to be disappointed he made it on time, but was glad that Hook survived (even if it was in the middle of the jungle).

Gaara was very happy at the ending song and the fact that among the animals who helped prince was also a big bear ('like teddy') so nobody complained about anything. When the show has ended, the clock showed twenty three past six p.m. And daddy was still not home.

They looked at themselves and ended up in silent agreement on eating up the remnants of the flakes that Gaara brought them as there was not much. She insisted on saving up a bit for tomorrow and she did as they didn't know when Gaara will be able to go to Naruto again (not during weekend, that for sure) and if daddy will bring home food at last or not. Usually he did after some time, but this time it got longer and longer so it seemed he was so busy he forgot about it. He apologized for it once and they laughed at him – how could he forget to buy something that important? But it didn't result in him bringing anything back then and they just lived off anything they could find in drawers and shelves.

Some things weren't edible until he made them edible by magical cooking so sometimes they couldn't do anything, just wait. Just like now. When the flakes ended, they decided to go back to their previous activities. Well, Temari did – she still had homework to do. Kankuro decided to go and listen to news on the radio and Gaara to play with teddy. That was fine with her. None of this was troublesome and gave her peace to work. The time passed…

Gaara was bored. Kankuro seemed to be lost in the world of news that talked about cars and rains and food and politicians and didn't want to play with him (or his teddy). Temari seemed to be too busy and daddy was still not home. He wandered around home aimlessly until he spotted the little brown mouse and ran after it, wanting to catch it. Mice were nice and funny and he always wanted to touch it when it showed up (despite whole family wanting to throw it out of the flat, he didn't understand why) but they were too quick. The mouse has hid behind the drawer and didn't come out when he called out to it. Aww, why? He only wanted to play...

He looked around, trying to find anything that could allure the brown animal out of the hiding. It seemed all in vain as he didn't find anything that could interest the mouse. He came out of the room, wanting to ask Kankuro where he hid his almost-cheese, but then she saw Temari. She seemed to play on flute or she tried very hard. It didn't sound very pretty but the song came out of it. Somehow. Just like that Piper from Hamm… Hum… the man who played the flute very well. And that could've work.

He crept to Kankuro's room and took his flute out of his things and came back to the drawer. He sat on the floor wanting to allure the mouse out of its hiding, but then it came to him that he didn't know what to play. He looked around helplessly, trying to spot the book from where daddy read him the story two days ago and spotted it. It laid on the highest shelf along with the forbidden books. He didn't know why. Daddy usually never put it that high… But either way it seemed that he had to go there if he wanted to play with mousie. And he wanted to play with it.

He brought up the chair from kitchen behind Kankuro's back (who didn't seem to be interested in slightest on what he did) as it was much easier to move as it had wheels than other heavy furniture and made it stand near the father's desk to not make it very movable. That could do the trick.

'Wait for me, teddy.' he said, putting the plush down on the floor and climbed up the chair. It didn't seem to be very easy as it wanted to twirl left and right, but somehow he stood up straight. Now it was only a few centimeters away, he just had to stand up higher…

And no, he still couldn't reach it. But what could he do? Chair was only that high… Maybe if he climbed up that shelf higher he could be able to touch it? It didn't take much to reach the book once he grabbed it, it was only the matter of touching it. He looked at it. It didn't seem to be a very hard task. He put one foot on the empty shelf, holding up the desk above his head and put whole his weight on the other foot. And just when he wanted to let go of the shelf to reach out for the book…

…the chair twirled again. And it twirled left, not right, blocking his leg and making him lose the ground for a moment. He squealed in fear, grabbing on the wood, but it ran out of his hand as the paper laying on it made it slick and his other foot slipped.

The world swirled, he heard the loud bang that shook his head and for a moment lost the vision from his eyes. When he opened them, he saw the ceiling. He sat up, not understanding what's happened. And then it hit him. The book with the story about Piper. It hit him squarely on the head and landed on the floor, looking strangely red on the green cover. And then he felt it. Pain. A big hot pain at the left side of his head. And it hurt. Very much. Very, very, very… he touched it, feeling how slick it was. Then he saw red? Why red? Why did it hurt so much? But why it was so red? Scary!... First tears fell from his eyes as he gasped for breath, and then it changed into flood in one flick of a second. It hurt like anything in his life. He was scared.

'Aaaaan! Daddyyy!'

Kankuro was the first who heard the crying. He came out to him without running as he knew that Gaara usually was a little exaggerating in the matter of the crying. What he saw made him stoop dead in tracks. Then he came out of the room. Running.

'Temari! Temari!'

She had just ended up doing her homework, last notes singing quite smoothly from her flute. It all didn't sound so pretty as she heard on lesson but still it was quite good. This time she wouldn't lose to pineapple head. She was sure. If she only could make it a little smoother… She only started on first notes at the beginning when her older younger brother ran to her room, pale as death, seeming to be unable to say anything besides the 'Temari', 'Gaara' and 'Temari' again, dragging her out of her room by force.

She heard the loud wail and understood that something bad has happened, so she came after Kankuro, expecting some kind of disaster but what she saw… That was a catastrophe.

Gaara sad on the floor, crying loudly, the blood ran on the side of his face in big stream, wetting his shirt and the floor. It seemed almost like a scene from a scary movie their dad watched late at night and she oversaw the bloody part accidentally. It was very scary then. And here it was worse. Because it happened for real. She breathed quickly, watching the scene as Kankuro stood beside her and clutched at her side, almost crushing her hand. There was blood… everywhere!... And, and… and… what now?... What to do?... What to do? _When you don't know what to do, phone to me and I will tell you everything._ Daddy. She had to phone to daddy. She ran to the phone, dragging Kankuro along and picked up the receiver, but no sound came from the other end. She looked at Kankuro with fear.

The boy looked back at her, then at receiver. Then he let go of her and ran out of the room. She looked after him hopelessly, then ran to the exit door, wanting to ask help from neighbors. But the doors were locked.

Father always did that when he left them alone.

'To make sure you were safe' he said. But now they were not safe! Gaara needed help and the phone was not working and she couldn't get to neighbors and!... What could she do like that? She felt like crying herself when she came back to Gaara who just sat, wailing and seeming to get covered in more and more blood. She tried to get his attention to herself, showing him his teddy, but it seemed that the redhead was enveloped in his pain and didn't see or did not want to see what she was doing. Why it had to happen right now? Just when father was not home! Only if Yashamaru was there… or… anyone!... Or mom!... if only mom was alive nothing like that would happen!...

'Gaara, don't cry!' she half-demanded, half-begged, waving the teddy before his nose, starting to cry herself. And just when she wanted to run to the door to just bang on them and plead for help for anyone who might – should've- hear her, Kankuro ran back to them both. With a phone in his hand. It was a mobile, black one with green numbers and a picture of white dog on the screen. She never saw it before. She looked at Kankuro, who stared back at her with panicked expression. It seemed he made one of his hidden deals among his friends. She didn't want to know what did he actually gave back for a CELL PHONE (and Kiba's cell phone nonetheless, the boy always thought up some unimaginable prices and Kankuro very rarely went for them) but now was not the time to ponder about this.

She caught it in her hands and ran back to the stationary phone where the address book lied. Ah, there. Daddy's number to work. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…

She looked at Kankuro who looked back at her. Was it possible for Kiba to sell him a valid phone? It was possible as Inuzuka was known for stupid jokes he did. And daddy was not picking up… She closed the connection and picked up the number again. It beeped and beeped and BEEPED – but nobody picked up. Could it be possible he did not hear the phone? But what were they supposed to do if he didn't pick up?

'Daddy!... Daddy, pick up!...' she pleaded, feeling how tears started falling from her eyes, but it seemed that daddy couldn't do that. Kankuro caught the address book and started looking up the pages. They seemed to be all empty. They moved here not long time ago after mother's death and were too busy to know anyone. That's why the pages here never filled up.

Just when they needed help!... From anyone!... She closed the phone, crying, looking at her brother. He didn't look back, turning the pages. And there, just at the end of the book, was a number. Uncle Yashamaru. Uncle would know what to do. She picked up the number. Beep. Beep. Beep- click.

'Hello?'

'Un-uncle Yashamaru!' she cried, holding up to the phone. She was right! Uncle never failed them on anything! 'Please, come quick, Gaara got hurt, he is bleeding and we don't know what to do, there's so much blood and he is crying and we can't get out, daddy locked us and-!'

'…you ran out of the time. Thank you.' The phone went dead. Then it clicked. 'Hello? It should be working now… it's Sabaku no Yashamaru, if you're hearing this it means I can't pick up the phone, please, leave the message after the beep. *Beep* It's second time you're recording the message, you have ten seconds…'

And the phone went dead again. And it started again. She looked at the wall, petrified. He was gone. Uncle Yashamaru was not under the phone and couldn't help them too. They were left on their own. She clicked of the phone and cried out loud like a little girl she was.

'Daddyyy!'

'Temari! Temari, wait!...' she looked at her brother again, his face wavering through tears. He seemed to hold up some piece of paper with line of numbers on it. She took it from his hand, still giving a low cry, reading it. It seemed to be a correct phone number, different from both of the two of those which she picked before. And it wrote 'Minuzu' above. It seemed pretty unknown. But it was all they had, because, as Kankuro showed, he rummaged through the whole desk and he didn't find any other piece of paper either. She hiccupped, holding back the cry, hearing as Gaara was still wailing with hoarse voice and clicked the number with trembling fingers. Maybe … maybe this time… someone… anyone… Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…

She hiccupped, starting to cry again, looking as Kankuro sat near Gaara, trying to clean his forehead with towel he got from the bathroom, but making only more mess. The blood just kept flowing and flowing, Gaara was almost all covered in it… Nobody picked up. Nobody seemed to be on this side of a phone either… Why? Why did it have to happen? If only daddy was here, if only mommy-

'Yes?' she stopped, catching her breath. Someone… some man picked up the phone!...

'HELP! Help us! He is all covered in blood!' she screamed frantically, interrupting and shouting through the still loud cry of Gaara, wanting to deliver the message to whoever was listening 'I don't know what's happened, but I only stopped watching him for a moment and then he was all crying and we don't know what to do and, and, and!...'

She looked at Gaara again and at pale face of Kankuro who seemed to be the only one who didn't start crying yet. Probably too shocked to do it. Gaara looked impossibly red-

'Gaara is dying!' she cried finally, not holding up the tears and sobbing anymore 'Help!...'

#+#+#+#+#+#

'-and if you check the passages, you can see that Hester is somewhat of a conflictive character. She acknowledges her sin and accepts the punishment the town has set upon her. But then she goes and replaces the letter that was originally given to her by one that is heavily embroiled and that she has done herself. What do you think that could mean..? Yes, Rin?' The young girl lowered her hand, biting her lip for a moment.

'It means that she is not only acknowledging her sin but taking pride on it, and showing defiance to society.'

She said after some hesitance, beaming when she was rewarded by a praising smile.

'That's a good answer. Anyone else? Kakashi.'

He turned towards the gray-haired kid, who was slumped on his seat, and once again looking like if he was about to fall asleep. Minato had asked him more than once if he felt okay in the past two months, and the kid always said he was fine, but he always looked so lethargic Minato couldn't help but wonder if he got bored during his lessons or had low blood sugar.

'Anything you can add to Hester's character?' The teen shrugged, slowly straightening on his seat and pulling down the neck of his polo so it wouldn't muffle his voice.

'I guess… She does acknowledge her infidelity, but she is also tortured by it. She turned the symbol of her sin in something beautiful, maybe as a message to her lover that what they had was a terrible, thing, yet something beautiful? ...But she still retains her morals and is still bound by them and it's by that that she can't be happy.'

'Yes, that's a very good comparison! Her morals are represented by her puritan clothing and customs, that's why when she decides to free herself them she is able to let go of her guilt. Yes, Rin?'

'But why does Pearl reject her mother when she does that? Shouldn't she be happy she wants to be free, having a chance to be acknowledge by her?'

'That's a very good question, but to understand it, you have to understand that Pearl is not a character as much as the embodiment of a symbology. Think Roderick Usher in 'The fall of the house of Usher', just like the house decayed, so did his body. Pearl is a the symbol of her infidelity as much as the red letter is, and it's shown several times through the books. Think about how she tortures her parents, yet is free of guilt and innocent herself. Think about it-' Minato got up from his seat, as unaware of it as he was of the fact some of his students were smiling a bit to themselves. Minato-sensei was the new teacher, the second youngest they had, besides Mizuki-sensei, but unlike him, the blond man was not only easy on his eyes, but obviously enjoyed his job, and his enthusiasm wasrather contagious. It was also kind of fun to see that when he got railed up on what he did, he tended to pace, considering he seemed completely oblivious to it, even though he practically didn't stop during the length of the class.

'She was called Pearl, which can be found at the seam right? Her husband supposedly died at the sea, drawing a parallel. There are black, yellow and red pearls, but the empirical image of pearls is normally associated with the white ones. They are a symbol of dignity and purity, yet Pearl is the child of sin, and like the Red Letter her dress and character reflects it. By letting go of her shame, she is denying the living embodiment of what pearl is, and denying her existence, that is why she draws back from her and only recognizes her as she pins the letter back on her chest. If you check that by the end-' Before he could continue, a very average cell phone ringtone started ringing.

'Kids… You know you can't have those one during classes…' the teacher said, his hands going to his hips as he gave them a stern look. 'Come on, turn it off, you can answer after class-'

'Sensei!'

'Yes, Obito?' he asked, turning to the dark-haired boy.

'I think it's yours, sensei.' the boy said, pointing at Minato`s bag. There was a moment of silence (interrupted only by the cheery ringing) before the blond male lowered his head, covering his eyes and muttering a curse before the class irrupted in laughter.

'Well…' he said, walking back to his desk and starting to rummage through it so he could find the cell phone 'As you can see, divine justice strikes us all, that will teach me not to mistrust my poor innocent students- Oh, shut up, all of you, I haven't had time to change the ring tone to something I can recognize!' The laughter only got worse. 'You shouldn't mock the person in charge of your grades, you know? It's counterproductive. Now shush, it might be something important.'

Not baby, though. Iruka was instructed to call to the secretary's desk first if it were an emergency with Naruto, just in case he didn't have his cell on at the time. He usually turned it off during classes, but he had forgotten this time.

He wasn't worried though, he thought it would just be Mitarashi or maybe Jiraiya-sensei -though he should still be somewhere in Paris- but at any rate, he was sure nothing was wrong. Until he heard the voice on the other side of the line.

'Yes?'

'HELP! Help us! He is all covered in blood!' I don't know what's happened, but I only stopped watching him for a moment and then he was all crying and we don't know what to do and, and, and!...'

He jerked away from the receiver at the volume of the voice, staring at it as if it had become a snake with less than healthy intentions. What the hell was this, some kind of joke? The class apparently saw something important was going on just by his face, because the background chuckles died immediately.

'Gaara is dying! Help!...'

Gaara. Gaara hadn't come to the house the last few days- Apparently he was down with a cold and his father hadn't wanted him to have the whole class to catch it. But who was this little girl and… Gaara had an older sister, didn't he? She was in primary school, from what he gathered… What was her name? Some sport… It had to sound like a girl's name…

'Temari? Your name is Temari, right? Gaara's sister?'

'Ahnn- Ahn- yeees!' she answered, barely holding up her sob but not managing on it very well. But she had to stop or she wouldn't be able to talk loudly – Gaara's cry was still hearable everywhere and at this point her voice mingled with the background 'Please, don't hung, up, help us, we don't know what to do, he is all covered in blood, I don't know whyyy!...' she wailed again, smearing the tears from her eyes, but barely seeing anything from it. Kankuro seemed to pale more and more with every second as he tried to do something with that bleeding wound and he couldn't do anything, anything!... And Gaara's cry was getting more hoarse now, and it sounded so scary and nobody wanted to help!...

'We can't get out, daddy locked us and he is not answering the phone and there's so much blood and I swear he is dying!…' she rambled on trying to think of everything that should be said and talking it out instantly 'And we called uncle but he is not home and we don't know who to call, please, don't hang up, he is crying so loud!...'

'I won't, Temari, don't worry- Honey… honey, calm down, Gaara's not dying, I promise. If he's crying like that he can't be. I know it looks awful, but it's probably not as bad.' He said in his most soothing, no-nonsense voice. Oh, God, something had happened to Gaara. He hadn't recognized the background noise as crying, but now the hitch's he heard were easily recognized as sobbing. Blood? What had happened? 'Where is he hurt? Did he hit himself somewhere? Did he fall down the stairs?'

'I don't know, I don't know!...' she wailed again, looking at her brothers in front of her 'I was sitting in my room and I was doing my homework and I was almost done when Kankuro came and dragged me to the living room and he was there, crying and all in blood and it just won't stop coming, Kankuro is trying to wipe it off but it just won't stop!... You did something to him, tell me!...'

Kankuro looked at her and shook head, leaving the towel on the floor and just holding Gaara in his arms like if it could help anything.

'He just started crying so I came. And when I came he was bleeding. I just came here and he was bleeding. I didn't do anything.' He muttered, almost in unhearable voice, staring at her like if he didn't see her 'There were news on sunny weather on the south side of the country and he started crying and I came and he was sitting and bleeding…'

'Kankuro says he was just sitting and bleeding when he came!... His shirt is all dirty, it won't wash up! And he stained the book too and it's on the floor it's everywhere!... Why daddy is not answering the phone?...'

Minato winced. What the hell had happened?

'I don't know honey, but don't worry, we'll find him. Now Temari, listen to me… I need you stay calm. You are the oldest one and your brothers look up to you, so if they see you are scared they will get scared too okay. Where is Gaara bleeding?'

Temari hiccupped, nodding to the phone like if the man could see her. She smeared yet another tear and let out another short sob.

'I-I will try…' Where was Gaara bleeding? He was all covered in blood, but Kankuro tried to wrap the towel around the head… She came closer, looking at the redhead. The other brother just looked at her, swinging slightly like if he was trying to put Gaara to sleep. But Gaara was far from that.

'Daddyyy!...' he wailed nonstop as he clutched on his shirt, his head, Kankuro, everything. 'Huuurts!...'

'I-it seems… it seems it's his forehead…'

Heads. Concussions. Gaara was obviously very awake though, so he wouldn't worry about that just yet.

'Okay, don't worry, heads bleed a lot, especially on kids. Just get a towel and fold it, and keep it pressed against the spot. Can you do that?'

Towels. She looked at the floor. There was one. It seemed it was Gaara's.

'Y-yes…' she said, picking it up and tussled it so it remained in one shape, though she couldn't tell what she actually made of that beside a bundle 'Against his forehead, yes?...'

She took it closer and pressed it against the forehead. Gaara screamed louder, obviously feeling more pain, and trashed, but Kankuro held it and automatically helped in holding the towel in place, pressing it lightly to the wound.

'Kankuro is doing that… but it's still bleeding!... He will die!... People die when they're bleeding!... I never saw so much blood!...'

'I promise he won't, sweetheart. No one that cries like that can die so easily, much less Gaara, he's a though boy. Now, do you know you address? Tell me where you live and I'll go there.'

'It's…' She gave him their address. Father taught them to not give their address out to anyone until he approved of it, but he never said what to do in such situations and he also didn't pick up the phone. So she gave it to him. 'But the doors are locked!... Daddy took the key!...'

Minato scribbled down the address on a corner of the book he had been using as guide, stopping dead on his tracks a she told him that. God, what to do?

'What about windows, Temari? Can you guys fit through them?'

Temari looked at the windows. One was opened slightly as the weather was quite warm and the day was sunny. She had a permission to close it if it started to rain and while doing that, father showed her how to open it fully. And they were pretty big.

'Yes… I think we can…' she said, calming up a little. Help was coming. They weren't left alone on their own. 'Gaara is small, he can…'

'That's good, we'll get you guys out through them. Hold on- guys…-' he turned around, and blinked in surprise when he saw that most of the students had stood up and were staring at him in apprehension. Obviously they had heard more than enough of the conversation. 'The kids from a friend had an accident and I need to go pick them up right now.' he said, holding the speaker of the phone so the girl wouldn't hear his conversation. 'I'm so sorry, but we are going to have to cut today's class short. Just remind me what we were doing next class and I'll explain it again-'

The students agreed quickly, and he smiled at them as Rin brought him his jacket and bag.

'Thanks. Can anyone call me a cab? I can't hang up on this-'

'I'll get it.' Kakashi was calling through his cell phone and giving the faculty's address. 'They say they should be here in about five minutes.'

'Thank you guys, please, someone let Sarutobi-sensei there's been an emergency and I'll explain it to him as soon as I can.'

'Don't worry about that. Good luck, sensei!' he smiled at them again and hurriedly put on his jacket, walking down the aisle and into the street.

'Temari? I'm taking a cab, I should be there in fifteen minutes. Now listen, do you know where our dad keeps your documents? I need you to try to find at least Gaara's and get your coats ready. Can you do that?'

Temari looked at Kankuro who listened to the conversation clearly. He shrugged. She knew very well what kind of situation they were in. Documents were somewhere… out there. Forbidden to touch. Father never let them get near any of them.

'Daddy forbade us touching the adulterish books…' she said, looking at the cabinet full of many papers, some of them laying on the floor. But those didn't look like Gaara's papers. They didn't have his name on them. 'There's too many, I don't know…'

She looked at Kankuro again, waiting for some help, but the brunet only shrugged again.

'He will be mad if we will mess them up.' he muttered. Temari looked at the phone helplessly. 'We don't have coats, Kankuro has a jacket and I have cape… daddy is usually dressing up Gaara in his own coat when he drives us school…'

'Okay. Don't worry for that. Try to find them, and I will explain to your dad what happened. Just take them away so they won't get stained by blood and look very carefully- they probably will say 'Identity document' somewhere and have Gaara's picture on it.' he explained, pacing back and forth until a miraculously yellow cab finally made act of presence. He hurriedly got in and told the address to the man. 'Now go look for those and try to give the phone to Gaara, please. Tell him It's Naruto's dad.'

'You're Naruto's dad?...'

That caught up Kankuro's attention as he looked at her with a surprised look on his face. Temari looked back, also taken aback by sudden realization

'He is telling us to search for it…'

'I'm not doing it. Dad will get mad.' muttered the other child, just curling up tighter around the wailing redhead and watching her with petrified eyes 'I gave you the phone, don't expect more of me!'

'But… but Kankuro, Gaara will die if we won't help him!...' she cried. The man said what he said but he didn't see what she saw. The towel, being pinkish and orange was half soaked with blood and Gaara's cry has silenced down a bit, though he still was emitting low wails. 'Kankuro!...'

Brunet looked at her with terrified eyes and got up from the floor, getting to the desk and opening the shelves one after another without word.

'There has to be Gaara's picture on it…' she said loudly, because Gaara's wail has strengthened once Kankuro left him on the floor, obviously being scared of being left alone.

'Gaara, Gaara, listen…' she said, getting closer to him, but he kicked her, making her step backward. But she moved forward again 'I have a phone, Gaara! It's Naruto's dad there… here, hold it… like that… I will search for documents…' she said, giving it to him and holding it up to his cheek until he grabbed it. His crying didn't stop though and he just looked at her and at the cell with watered eyes. 'Aaaahnn… it huuurts!...'

'Gaara? Gaara? It`s Minato, Naruto`s dad, can you hear me?'

The redhead nodded, not noticing that the man couldn't see him like that and just kept on wailing.

'It huuurts!... I wantadaddyyy!...'

Good, Gaara was talking. Perfect really. Oh God, please don't let there be a traffic jam now…

'I know you fell, but don't worry. I'm going there to help, and as soon as I get there we'll see how to get your daddy too, okay? But that's not important now, Gaara, is teddy with you? Did he fall with you?'

Gaara hiccupped, slowly moving around, trying to spot his toy, for the first time focusing on something else than his pain from last fifteen minutes. At last he found it – he still sat near the desk, not where he left him, but close enough. He crawled slowly to it, hugging it to himself, through he still didn't stop crying.

'No, he didn't fall with me…' he said smearing the blood out of his cheek and looking at it, so it lead to even louder wailing as it looked even more scary. He hugged his toy closer, dirtying it in blood too 'I left him on the floor to wait for me and I got there alone !...'

'Are you sure of it, Gaara?' he said, placing special emphasis on the word, his eyes set on the street names, trying to find the one he had been directed at. 'Teddies are very delicate, you know. You are a big boy, so you are going to be fine, but he's so small and soft. If he got hurt when you fell he might have cut himself somewhere. You better check, because he might need to get scans in his head and stuff to get better, and hospitals for teddy's are hard to find, and you need to call to make reservations.'

Gaara stopped the louder wailing, letting out small sobs and looked at his toy closer. It didn't seem to have any cuts, through it was even more dirty now than it was before and it were also red stains. He didn't see too well through his tears actually.

'It… it seems he cut himself…' he said, hugging the toy even closer 'It's… it's on his head… and he says it hurts very much, he is all red…'

'Poor teddy! Gaara, he must be so scared, I want you to try to keep him calm until we get there, tell him that we'll get him help as soon as possible. And it won't hurt one bit either.'

'Ye… yes… you hear teddy? Naruto's daddy says it's okay and that you will get help…' he said, looking at his toy in the eye and smearing at his cheek again. The wound, not being kept close with the towel, bled freely on him again 'Bu… but teddy says that… that teddy's brother and sister said… that he lost much blood… and that he will die…' he said, hiccupping 'I don't want to dieee!...'

'You won't die, Gaara, I promise. And tell teddy to tell his family that they don't know anything and they should listen to the adults. Compared to them you are an adult, and compared to you, I am. And if we both tell them that teddy will be fine, they will believe it.' Oh God. Finally, Finally. Covering the receiver he turned to the man driving the cab. 'Listen, can you stay here I moment? I'm going to pick some kids up and I need to take them to the closest hospital.'

The man turned around, nodding wordlessly –finally what the man had been said started making more sense than some drunks ramblings- and Minato ran out, leaving his backpack and the door half opened.

'Gaara, I got here, tell your siblings to be ready, I'm going up the stairs.' The front door wasn't open, and fuck damn, keys were needed to open it. Keys he didn't have, nor did the kids. Rather than start ringing all departments and getting people to agree to open the door for him, he ran around until, trying to find the fire exits to be able to get in. By mere casualty, he ran across the parking lot of the department and found the door open and no guard on sight. Without second thought, he ran through the door and up the stairs. 'Okay, I'm here, what department?'

Still hiccupping, Gaara turned to his siblings, looking at them as they made a mess out of a perfectly clean room and took off a phone from his ear.

'Naru-Naruto's dadday says… he says I won't…. I won't die!...' he said, then let out a loud wail and let go of a phone, hugging to his toy like if it was the only thing on the world that could provide comfort. Covering it all in blood, of course. 'Daddaaayyy!...'

Maybe it didn't hurt as much as some would think he was hurt, but he was just tired and hurt and the situation didn't stop, not providing any kind of comfort. He just wanted it to be all right.

The phone was left on the floor as it was, talking and beeping, until Kankuro hadn't almost tripped on it. Luckily, not breaking the connection.

'Uh, what?' he said, seeing it still talked while Temari still searched through the shelves and Gaara just sat, curled up to teddy, crying, without a towel on the head.

'-your siblings to be ready, I'm going up the stairs.' was uttered through it as he picked it up and sat near Gaara, getting the towel near his head again. The redhead only cried louder, but didn't move away as previously, obviously being tired by pain and this nonstop screaming. And that was somehow more scary than it was on the beginning. He didn't know why, but he felt, under his skin, that the quieter Gaara got the worse it was and he didn't want anything worse to happen from what he saw!...

'Hello?' he muttered to the speaker, maybe a little too quietly as he still couldn't just bring himself to talk louder for no reason 'I found some documents, it has Gaara's face on it and everything…'

And to tell the truth he found some other documents with Gaara's face on it, but he was not really eager to tell that as it was the first paper he saw his mother's face since her death as father didn't want any pictures of her around and he'd rather not give them off anywhere. Besides Gaara was very small on it (smaller than now) and they probably weren't what the man wanted from them… He heard some kind of strange sounds coming from the phone, almost like if the man was running up the stairs inside some closed space, so he probably was somewhere near. And he said something about stairs so he probably… probably… They didn't have time to look for anything else.

'Temari… Temari!...' the girl finally looked at him, her face in the grimace of near-crying, but she held herself just from doing that quite well 'Naruto's dad is here, we don't have time!'

She let go of the book she was holding, letting it fall and soak on the blood that was on the floor and she ran to their hallway, taking his jacket and her cape. He took it from her and left the phone laying on the floor , without words dressing up Gaara in it, not even looking at Temari who stared at this with surprise. Wasn't that obvious? He was an older brother and Gaara was in need so he had to get what was best and that was it. Besides, Temari's cape was a little light and Gaara was sick so it was obvious he was the one to give him his jacket, right?

Dad always said to look out for him when they were alone, so he felt obliged to do that. The redhead was not very eager to get into it, but didn't really protest so he just closed it over him and got up, carrying him in his arms (even if it was hard, but Gaara was smaller than most kids his age and lighter and he was also not weakest person in his class) along with that ragged stuffed bear. Gaara instantly curled around him, crying, and he knew that no matter what would happen he wouldn't let go of him now. Besides, it was all his fault that he hadn't noticed what he was doing. He was not as busy as Temari and he was also sitting near the doors where Gaara sat in. He had to repent for his mistake.

Temari took the towel and pressed it to the redheads forehead yet again, making it look grotesque reddish on almost whole space and just when she did it, the phone spoke again on the floor. He didn't really catch what it said, but Temari did, so he left the matter to her.

'It's number seventeen.' she said, looking at the windows. She hadn't saw anybody yet, but she could as well open the windows. She looked at Kankuro again, who was wearing only light shirt, but if there was no time she couldn't make him wear anything else. Not that it really mattered to her now, what was the scariest was that the wound was still bleeding and that was beyond scary. Even if she got used to situation a little. 'I'm opening the window now…'

Turned out he didn't really need the address, just guided himself by the source of all the noise and coming to a skidding stop in front of the department, finally closing the cell. He wasn't done with it tonight, and he better save some batteries for later.

'Kids?' he knocked on the door, still panting –maybe he should start doing something else besides sitting around in the house and walking to work, because that's not exercise and he didn't remember getting this winded up from four flights of stairs just three years ago – 'It's Uzumaki Minato.'

He glared at the empty hallway, wondering why the hell no one had come when a kid had been wailing like that at least for fifteen minutes. Jesus, what kind of people lived here?

Kankuro turned at the knocking, along with Temari. Gaara instantly sprung up and started squirming, wanting to go closer to the source of the noise.

'Daddaaayyyy!' he wailed, misunderstanding the sound. Because daddy sometimes knocked to the door before he opened them to not make them afraid of sudden robbery if he ever left them alone at home. Though he rarely did – they lived in dangerous place and he always said that he liked to 'keep the most important things close to himself if anything happened'. They didn't really understand him as he never took around the radio or small TV or the golden ring of mommy or anything like that, but if he talked like that he probably knew what he was doing – he was their daddy after all.

Kankuro ran up to the door as Gaara left him little to no choice, with Temari joining short on the trails. She visibly started losing her control again.

'The doors are locked!' she shouted, trying to reach the handle and moving it in vain as nothing's happened 'Please, help us, we opened the windows!...'

'It's on the other side of house!' added Kankuro. Gaara just wailed louder.

'Okay!' Yeah, okay. More running. Maybe he should reconsider how much he was smoking. Half a package a day might not be as healthy as he had initially expected it to be. Less than half a minute later he found the window and got in, blinking at the large amount of blood and then looking for the kids. 'Kids? Gaara!'

'It's on the other side of house!' added Kankuro. Gaara just wailed louder. They stood in silence for a moment, looking toward the source of the noise, then they looked at each other and ran from the door as they didn't move an inch, waiting for him there.

'We're here!' said Temari, running quicker as she was only carrying a few papers in her hands. She spotted a tall blond man and ran up to him, taking him immediately by hand and taking him toward Kankuro who was running only a few steps behind which made the move a little needless, but she did it unconsciously.

'He is all covered in blood and I really don't know what's happened, he just can't stop crying, I'm so scared-'

'Aaaan!...' The redhead looked up from Kankuro's hold at the man and without words just reached up for him, seeing the face of an adult he recognized. Kankuro just stood there, quiet, observing the man and not protesting against anything as he was sure that any adult knew better what should be done than two of them here.

'Gaara!' He let the little girl drag him wherever she wanted, but let go as soon as he saw he redhead with what seemed to be his hair bleeding into the rest of his tiny person. Without pausing to think, he picked him up and hugged him tightly for a second, before pulling away to inspect the wound.

'Oh, man…' he winced a bit and pulled the other wide of the towel to mop the blood as best as he could so he could actually see the size of the wound. It was big and ugly, and he could actually see bits of white underneath the deepest part of it. He carefully pressed the towel again before the other kids could notice.

'Okay kids, don't worry. It looks worse than it really is.' he said, getting back up with the redhead still in arms 'We are going to go to the doctor and they'll fix Gaara. Come on, we'll call your father from the car.'

Helping the kids out was a little complicated, considering Gaara was leeched to his side and he really didn't want to pull away from him either- the steady weight and warmth of the small body was reassuring. He got Temari and the boy whose name didn't really know yet (he had thought that Gaara looked a lot like his father, but this boy was almost a perfect copy of him) out the window, and then himself with added weight with considerable more effort, then closed the window.

They went down the stairs again, considering the least they needed was the elevator to fail and get trapped for several hours. At least going down wasn't as hard as running up them three or four at the time, and luck really must have been on his side, because cab driver man was still where he had left him.

'Thank you so much.' he muttered, ushering the kids inside and them himself. 'How close are we to the nearest hospital?'

'It's about half an hour of riding if we get through the Hokage's street, but if we take the route on-' said the man, putting out the cigarette and looking at the map. He turned around, wanting to show it to the male, but then he spotted the bloodied kid and the words died on his mouth. 'Fifteen minutes if you pay all fines.' he said quickly and started the car. Gaara curled up to the Minato, but really used to seeing such strange people without having ability to hide behind daddy's legs. Somehow the warmth of it felt more reassuring than his brother's body heat, but the pain still didn't stop so the tears ran down his cheeks without a break.

'Can't we go already?' said Temari, squirming on her seat from nerves. Kankuro just sat still and pale. If he couldn't do anything, he didn't.

'That plus taxes.' Minato said, giving a little nervous laugh as he adjusted the little boy across his legs. 'Don't worry, it's really not as bad as it looks, but I'd rather we hurry as much as possible.'

He turned to the older brother's, smiling at them gently.

'Okay kids, we are going to the hospital, so don't worry. We'll get this fixed right away. My name is Uzumaki Minato, by the way. You must be Gaara's older siblings.'

'Hello.' 'Hi.' Said Temari and Kankuro almost in unison as the man turned the car and moved it to the main street. Gaara just sat in the same position, not minding anything. Temari and Kankuro glanced at him, at first a little nervously, then finally they looked at him openly.

'Are you really Naruto's dad?' said Kankuro, holding into the teddy Gaara left in his grip once he got to Minato's arms 'I'm Kankuro, older brother of Gaara, can we go to yours sometime, Gaara brings so many fine things-'

'Kankuro!' shouted the girl and sent him a harsh glare that made the boy shut his mouth and shrink into seat a little, but not for long 'I'm Temari and I'm the oldest here and I was in charge of them today because I'm the oldest and I'm a big girl and daddy said I-I…'

Her face fell suddenly at the realization and she tightened her mouth, trying with all strength not to cry but failing at it. '…but now Gaara got hurt and daddy will be mad and he will probably never trust me again!'

'Hey, that's not true!' shouted Kankuro. The car took a crazy turn, making other cars beep and some other drivers shout the obscenities at them 'It was me who didn't watch what was he doing! I was only listening to news, I should've watched him-'

'Why didn't you listen to the radio in the big room then?'

'Why should I do that there? TV is in there!'

'But it's not working!'

'It wasn't working for days and I always listened to news in the kitchen you know that! Daddy forbade me to take it anywhere!'

'It's because you're always trying to eat something from our portions! You're so greedy!'

'I'm only hungry! And there's nothing to eat in the kitchen!'

'There's Gaara's syrup!'

'Who would eat something like that!'

'I saw you doing that yesterday!'

'I did not!'

'Did too!'

'Did not! It was probably you! You always tell me to shut up when I say I'm hungry but you eat just the same as me! I can't believe you're not hungry too! You only say that because dad told you to not but I have enough of this, you know?'

'Because you're stupid! And you ate it!'

'I didn't do it! And I'm not stupid!'

'You are!'

'Am not!'

'You ar-'

'Aaaaaannn!'

They both stopped and looked at Gaara who just clutched to Minato more and cried louder. He was visibly annoyed by them arguing. Usually they would just ignore him, but at this state they just sat down on their seats and looked in different directions.

'We're not hungry.' muttered Temari with pressure, glancing at Minato with warning that she was very, very serious and if he didn't believe her then- well, she was serious.

Minato blinked form one kid to another as they started discuss among them, his brain still too railed up from what had just happened to figure out what they were saying just yet. Immediately put his arm more closely around Gaara and rubbed at his arm.

'Shh, Gaara, calm down, you are scaring teddy… Where's teddy…?'

Gaara froze in the hold and sat straight, looking around for it with panicked stare. Kankuro immediately brought it to his vision, so he caught it and hugged tightly, curling to Minato again.

'Dun be scared, teddy, Naruto's dad is here…' he murmured into the bloodied ears. 'Naru… Naru…' He slowly rose his head to the man, looking at his face and showing him the stained toy 'Teddy asks where is Naruto.'

'Naru's at home with Iruka. Remember it's Friday, so I was at work…' Minato took one look at the dirty, bloodied plushy and probably would have tried to kick himself in the head if he hadn't had a child in his lap at the moment. The first thought that came to mind had been that the image was just perfect for a story. 'Oh, wow… it looks like teddy had a rough night, too…'

He said, patting the plush toy's back consolingly 'Hey, Gaara, what do you say next time you come to our house you and Naruto give teddy a bath? You can pick any shampoo you want.'

Gaara's eyes widened and he hugged teddy tighter, hiding it in his arms, hiccupping a little.

'No…' he muttered, curling over it.

'That's stupid, Gaara, only because mommy said-'

'No!' he cried and started sobbing again, hiding the teddy even deeper in his arms 'No, no, no, no! My teddy!'

'No one will force you, Gaara.' he said, rubbing the boy`s arm again. 'But you know why people clean wounds, right?'

The redhead didn't move, still holding onto the plush tightly as he cried. The car bumped on the road, taking another turn.

'Why?' he asked finally. He didn't know why people cleaned wounds and what was this cleaning anyway.

'It's because if you let them to the air and with old stains around, they can get dirty and you can get sick from that. I'm sure that if you explain to teddy it's so he won't get a cold, he will agree. If you want, we can have a nurse explain it to him while they clean yours, do you think he'll listen to the nurse if you tell him to?'

Gaara shook his head and tightened the hold on the plush even more, though technically it didn't seem possible to do that.

'It's mineee!...' he wailed, not understanding why even the blond man wanted to take it away from him. It was his! What was wrong with him having his teddy?

'It's no use, he won't listen.' said Kankuro grimly, looking at the man 'We tried many times. He'd just get into hysteric if you even get it close to soap. Even dad doesn't know why.'

'Don't worry Gaara, no one would take teddy away from you- we'll talk about it later.' He looked at the streets- They couldn't be more than a little over five minutes away from the hospital. 'Okay, kids. I know you all had a very rough night, but you did wonderfully. You all did very well, and I'm sure your dad will be very proud of all of you when he gets here—' Oh, speaking of that. 'Temari, do you know your daddy's number?' he said, squirming a bit to get to his cell phone and giving it to the girl. 'Dial it and give it to me. I'll explain to him what happened, and then you all can talk to him by turns, agreed?'

The girl nodded and picked up the number. She usually didn't remember the number, but she dialed it two times today and it was more than enough as she stared at it with prayer in her mind. The phone started beeping.


	4. 4: Cell phone

At work, Daichi worked. Which is obvious, because that's what you do at work – you work. Though for him it seemed to be a little new on the basis as it was one of the first times he was not late for work and even came earlier half an hour, just readjusting the debt of hours he made previously. Because he wasn't given out on two days when he was sitting with Gaara at home – it was another debt that strained patience of chief let him do, but everything had its endings – chief's nerves too. So he sat today to the latest hours and worked.

And he did quite well, his mind not distracted by kids by the slightest, counting up the numbers and preparing for presentation he was supposed to make this evening. He had time to prepare for it when Gaara slept, and he made him sleep a lot so he prepared well. It seemed to be a good chance to repair some of his mistakes and get better on his opinion there, which could result in maybe even getting the higher payment. Not much, but every coin counted now and if the boss only had reason to help him on his situation (which was rather poor and even the chief, who didn't really care, couldn't just walk around it) it was possible that if he showed he actually had some good sides, he would.

He was just opening PowerPoint with the beginning slide, when one of the workers spoke up.

'Daichi, your telephone is ringing.'

'Excuse me?' he spoke, looking at the quite steady, calm man in his thirties. It was their place of work and phones rang quite often, but the lower was the rank the smaller was the amount and importance of the calls. He had all rights to ignore it and the reprimand from the worker who knew the place from some time seemed to be quite ridiculous.

'It's been ringing from quite some time, it's starting to get annoying. Pick it up for once, shut up whoever it is and come back to us, okay? It wouldn't be very convenient for it to disturb us while you would show us important statistics.' said the worker again and Daichi sighed, agreeing with him. He excused himself and went back to his office, seeing that yes, the phone actually did ring. He hadn't heard it before because he was on a run through some offices as he was getting important data which was missing from his presentation before, so he couldn't tell who and why suddenly wanted attention from him, but whoever it was, chose the very bad moment to do it.

'Hello?' he said in annoyed tone of voice, tucking his chair under his desk to make the place look neat – not that it wasn't cleaned already 'I'm sorry, but whoever you are, I don't have time for you. I'm in the middle of important work and I'd rather not be disturbed. But if you really must, make it quick, I don't have time.'

The blond, who had just gotten the phone blinked at it, a rather large part of him tempted to close it and pretend it had been a prank call. He hated angry people, especially when they were being aggressive to him and he was already railed up as it was.

'I-it's important…Daichi-san. It's Uzumaki.'

The saffron haired man blinked, then frowned. Uzumaki? Why did Uzumaki call to his work? Gaara was not with him today so what would he want? Was it the time of 'returning the favor'? But why now, he really hadn't got time to chatting right now!...

'Good evening, Mr. Uzumaki' he said though, not voicing any of this and altering the tone of his voice into more polite one, though he still didn't hide he was in a rush 'What's so important you have to call me to my work… through your working classes?' he said, remembering that if anything, Minato was at work now. It all started to get more and more strange.

The blond relaxed a little as the tone changed, adjusting back in his seat and absently continuing to stroke the child on his lap.

'Yes, well… Please don't get worried, but Gaara had an accident. It seems he fell from a chair and got a small cut on the forehead-' Small wasn't the word to describe the cut, but the least he needed was the kids to hear it and much less for the man to get into hysterics and have a car accident on the way to the hospital. 'Your daughter called me and I'm taking them all to …Konoha's hospital? Is that right?' he asked the cab driver, receiving a positive answer from the man and nodding.

'Yes, Konoha's hospital. So, um. I'm staying with them, so don't worry, but you really should come whenever you are done. And… the kids want to talk with you, so if you could calm them down a bit?'

Daichi blinked again.

'What?' he asked, feeling a little absurd at the whole he heard 'What do you mean he had accident? But Gaara is at home and not with you today, what the hell are you talking about?' he said looking with his eyes at his notes but not seeing them. What did he mean 'had accident'? What chair? What cut? Gaara was sick and at home under Temari's care and she was a responsible girl – sure, still a kid, but… and what about the phone? How could she phone not having a phone working? He didn't pay the bills and then – from where did she know the phone number to Minato?

'Is this a joke?' he asked, in disbelieving tone. Maybe Iruka mixed up names as he called Minato in hysteric when Naruto had some kind of accident… 'Don't you mean Naruto? Because if it is, then it's absolutely not funny!'

'N…No… It's not Naruto. He's at home with Iruka.' Oh, God, what hour was it? He better call home as soon as possible… 'Your kids were at home. I don't know how they did it, they must have found my number and called, so I hurried there and we are almost reaching the hospital…'

'Gods help me, I have no idea what are you talking about.' said Daichi with a calm tone, but for some odd reason feeling that the hair at the back of his neck started standing stiff, even if what Minato just said there was impossible, simply impossible… 'My phone is not working, they couldn't phone anyone from there and I don't have your number written in the book, they couldn't…'

'Daichi-san… Please calm down… The kids are all well, and I'm staying with them, there's nothing for you to worry about.' he said, trying to sound reassuring. Oh God, the man looked on the verge to have a fit. 'I'm going to pass you to your daughter, okay? The kids really want to talk to you, so just… tell them everything will be okay.'

'You can't have my daughter with you!' he shouted finally, finding the whole thing absolutely not possible and too ridiculous to be happening 'What are you playing with me, is this some sick jo-'

'Daddy?' He froze in the middle of the sentence, feeling how his throat tightened. What…

'Temari?...' he asked, feeling his legs going weak. What… but then… Gaara… accident…

'Daddy, I'm so sorry! Please, don't be mad at me! I only left him for a few minutes, I was doing my homework and then Kankuro ran and took me to the living room and he was all sitting there and bleeding, I don't know what's happened, but I really left him only for a moment!...'

The girl rambled on and on something about it not being her fault and him not being mad but he couldn't understand a word, slowly sitting on the chair as he felt that his legs couldn't hold him straight above the floor. No… no way…

'Sitting and crying? What do you mean by that?' he asked, even if he heard it before, but now his mind felt blocked and the previous information just didn't want to get into reasoning with him 'Temari?...'

'He fell down from something and hit his forehead, I was so scared, he is still bleeding even now-'

'Still bleeding? What do you mean 'still bleeding'?' he asked, feeling how his heart accelerated its beating in his chest 'When did this happen?'

'Not long time ago, I don't know, maybe half-an hour-'

'What?' Half an hour and he is still bleeding? 'What did you say?'

Temari cried.

'Daddy, don't be mad at me, I was only doing my homework and I didn't know what he was doing!'

'Why the hell were you doing your homework? I let you to watch over your brothers because I thought you were a big girl! Temari, holly gods, what have you done? Couldn't you do your homework tomorrow, or what?...'

The girl cried.

'I'm sorry!... Daddy, I'm so sorry!...'

He was not getting anywhere with this. He held his head in his hand and breathed. One, two. Okay. He regained some of his mind.

'Stop crying, Temari. It's okay, you have Minato with you so there shouldn't be any harm done.' he spoke, more to himself than to her, but it seemed to work on both sides – even if he was not so sure himself 'How did you call him?'

'Kankuro gave me the phone.'

'The phone? What phone?'

'Cell phone.'

He frowned, trying to remember if he accidentally didn't give his kids cell phone, though he knew very well that he didn't. From where Kankuro had a cell phone?

'All right, Temari, you did very well. Could you give me Kankuro for a moment?'

'I'm sorry daddy.'

'I know, don't worry about it anymore, you were very strong. Give me Kankuro.' The phone shed, went through some sound that seemed to be the sound of a car and someone… crying?... Oh, for the love of gods!...

'Hello?'

'Kankuro? It's dad. From where you have cell phone?'

'It's not mine, it's Kiba's.'

'I know it not yours. What I'm asking you is why do you have it.'

The silence befell on the other side of the phone. It was not important but he had to gather his thoughts and interrogating Kankuro seemed to be good way to get out of the chaos he was suddenly thrown in.

'Well?'

'I exchanged with him.'

'For what?'

Silence. Daichi sighed nervously.

'You stole it from him, am I right?'

Silence.

'You stole again. Kankuro, how many times do I have to tell you – don't steal from other people!'

'But I didn't steal it! And even if I did it helped, didn't it? We wouldn't be able to call Naruto's dad otherwise!'

'Stealing is still stealing!'

'I didn't steal! And if you paid the taxes I wouldn't have to use it!'

He sighed again, feeling like if he could bang his head on the nearest wall just right now. What the hell was he saying, what did it matter anyway? He ran his hand through his face and looked at the ceiling.

'Kankuro, listen – I'm sorry. Tell me – how's Gaara?'

'It's okay dad, I understand.' He smiled bitterly. Such fine kids he had 'He is still crying, but we're near the hospital now. I gave him mine jacket. He cried for you a lot.'

'You're a good boy, Kankuro. Can you give the phone to him now?'

'Sure. Hey, Gaara… It's dad.'

He heard some rustling and then his ear was filled with loud wailing.

'Daddyyy! Aaaahn!'

His face fell a little at the sound, his last pieces of hope crumbling. It seemed that Gaara really was hurt and if he cried for so long then the wound had to be more than serious. He got up from the chair and started pacing. If he got out from there now, he would be able to get there before traffics, maybe in twenty, twenty five minutes, Konoha Hospital was not that far, there were good connections…

'Daddyyy!...'

'Gaara? It's daddy - my gods, what's happened?'

'I've got an ouchieee! And it huuurts! Daddyyy!' Oh, gods!...

'Wait- wait, Gaara, don't cry, everything will be all right, I'm sure… Gaara, please...' he said in the softest tone available he usually used when he wanted to speak to minds of any of his kids when they were hurt beyond speaking.

But it didn't seem to work this time. At all.

'Gaara, Gaara... you have your teddy with you, right? Don't let go of it, mommy will be with you, I will show up soon… why did you got this ouchie, Gaara?...'

'I wanted to play with mousie but then I fell and it huuuurts!'

With mousie? On a chair?

What was he doing? Kids really were complicated, the younger the worse it got. But now it was not time to ponder on this, the redhead cried still to the phone and it really did sound awful and even if he was with Minato he had no guarantee that it would go as well as the blond assured. You always spoke lies to not get one nervous and of course, it never succeeded. Because how could he leave his baby alone when it cried like that? Sure, he was a bad father he left them alone and let it all happen, but it didn't mean he would just sit through it!...

'Gaara, I will be right here, be strong, it all will be all right. Can you give me Minato to the phone?' The redhead mumbled something to the phone and dwelled on wailing again as the rustling noise emerged again. 'Hello? I'm sorry I didn't believe you… I will be right there in twenty minutes or so. Please, take care of them… please. I'm depending on you.'

While the kids talked with the man, he got out his wallet and a pen, scribbling something in an used bus ticket. Mitarashi would probably get mad at him, but he really was in no situation to stop and think too much about things. He asked the man how much would it cost and looked for the money.

'Of course I will, don't worry about that, I would have done the same…' He distractedly lifted the towel, then pressed it back, relaxing a little. 'Look, it's stopped bleeding already, so please drive safely on your way here… I need to hang up, we are here and I need to call Iruka. Really, it's not as bad as it sounds, so don't worry.'

'Yes, thank you' _Don't worry,_ that man really was a joker… Though he had to admit he had hands for kids, he couldn't imagine getting that far without all kids being in hysterics. He really was lucky Gaara picked up a fight with the livid blond instead of some cold bastard who didn't give a damn and wouldn't run to their home at the call of a kid 'I'll be right there.'

He hung up, looking at the phone for a moment or two, then he got his jacket on and ran from his office, taking his briefcase and keys to the car on a run. If he turned into the Danzo's street right now he might've be able to miss the traffic jam that was starting to block the streets right now on Fugaku's and Madara's streets. Maybe if he'd hurry…

'Daichi? Where are you going?'

He looked around, stopping on a turn and running back to the man. Yura, like usual, came out to get himself a cup of water. He never lived without it through long and boring presentations in this work. Ha. At least this time he won't have opportunity to drink it.

'Yura, gods, so good I see you!' he called and caught the man by shoulders 'You know that I have presentation? About the statistics of the last half of year? Yes? It's yours! Get the papers I tossed into my bin today and find the talking for today and read it! I really can't be up there, my kid got an accident, have to go to hospital, we will talk later-'

'But!...'

'-I'm so glad you agree, you're such a good friend. We should go for a beer somewhere sometime. Gotta go, good luck!'

'But, but Daichi!...'

He turned around and ran to the doors, catching briefly the hour on a clock. 9:21 p.m. If Yura was good enough, he'd end before midnight. And even if he didn't, it wouldn't matter anyway. He was not planning on getting back before the very morning.

'Daichi!... Daichi, you will get fired if you will not get back to that room, the director from opposite company is there, I can't do that, Dai-!' He closed the door to the elevator. Maybe he would. Who cared. Gaara needed him. Now it was all that mattered.

#+#+#+#+#+#

After hanging up, Minato gave the money and thee ticket to the driver, knowing it was more than what the man had asked, but also thinking that if anything, the man deserved it, he didn't want to know how he managed to get them in one piece at that speed.

'Listen, thank you so much for all your help. I don't know if we stained anything- I really can't see too well in the dark- but if you need to clean anything or had any problems because of us, just call on that phone whenever you want, and I'll cover the expense. Thank you again!' With that he helped the kids out of the car, still keeping Gaara in his arms and quickly walking up the steps. He was about to get inside the door, but stopped and turned around, crouching down to the kid's height.

It... hadn't occurred to him that he would have to explain what happened. And what could he say in this situation? He hadn't been in an hospital in so long, and sure, this time it wasn't Naruto, so he felt he could hold it together, but…

'Kids, I need to tell you all two very important things.' he said, looking at them all for turns. 'First, there are going to be lots of people inside, so I want you all to stay close to me at all times. If for reason you get lost or anything, just find a nurse and tell them to look for me, okay?'

Kankuro and Temari exchanged knowing glances with each other. Poor man. It seemed he wasn't in hospital very often and didn't know that hospitals were not endless labyrinths of death in which such grown up adults as them got lost in constant basis. All it took was some loud scream so they could be heard on three floors. They practiced it a lot before. But they nodded, agreeing in unison, not wanting to disappoint the blond. It wouldn't be good to stress him out above that.

Minato smiled at them.

'And the second… The doctor that will help Gaara might ask him or any of you what happened. I want you to tell them exactly what happened but that you were with me, and that it happened when I went to the bathroom, do you understand?' he pulled the still sniffling Gaara away from him so he could look at him seriously. 'I want you to tell them that I was taking care of you all, but when I left for a moment, Gaara had the accident. If they ask you anything else, just say you don't know, okay? Your daddy might have problems if you don't.'

They looked at him suspiciously, with frown on their faces. Finally, Temari nodded, poking Kankuro with elbow, so he agreed too, though he wasn't very convinced.

'But daddy said it's not nice to lie…' he muttered, but the girl silenced him with a glare. Gaara just looked at Minato with saddened face.

'But you wasn't there.' He said 'I was with teddy.'

'I know I wasn`t, Gaara...' he said, cuddling the little boy closer. 'I promise when your dad get`s here he will tell you this one time will be all right. '

He slowly straightened up, still holding Gaara in one arm as he gently gave the younger boy a small push.

'Just say that, and only if they ask you. if not, just let me explain it myself, okay?'

Gaara simply nodded and cuddled to Minato, holding onto his neck and the plush toy between them. Kankuro looked at them and quietly got closer to Minato and caught him by pants with the highest security. In case of getting lost as his father taught him when he had both of his hands full of something else. Temari was too big to do that but she still looked tentatively at the blond's hand. Kankuro saw it and pointed at it with his chin, urging her and she gave in, catching it and looking in front of her with slight pinkness on her cheeks. She was a big girl, she only wanted to… wanted to… make the man feel safer because of his lack of knowledge about hospitals, all right?

Minato curled his hand around the girls and smiled down at them.

'All right, in we go.'

It was only a matter of seconds until he found the front desk, walking to it, a little surprised by the lack of people he saw around. Probably was too early for accidents to start happening… only 8:45Pm. And the kids father had still been at work…

'Excuse me…Where can I find pediatrics emergencies?' The male nurse that was behind the desk looked up from several files he was looking through, blinking at the tall blond with several scared looked children around. He immediately noticed the blood that had gotten to the man's shirt.

'It's…right next to the adult's emergency. What happened?' he said, straightening up.

'An accident. I left for a moment and Gaara fell trying to reach something on a shelf. The book fell on him and now he's got a cut.' The nurse nodded, looking around until he found who he was looking for, waving at a young female nurse with short dark hair.

'Shizune!' looking at them, she walked closer, breaking into a small jog as she too noticed the blood. 'Please take him to the pediatrics ER and take his data.'

The young woman nodded, turning towards the man.

'May I see?' Minato nodded, pulling Gaara away slightly so she could see the wound, being careful to keep it well out of sight of the other kids, considering the flow had finally stopped enough to make clear that bits of bone were visible. The woman made a face, but then turned towards the older man, reapplying the towel.

'What's his name?'

'Sabaku Gaara,'

'Well, Gaara-kun, it seems you got quite the hit there, but don't worry. We are going to get it fixed and you'll be as good as new. Does it hurt?'

The red-haired kid looked at her quietly through watered eyes who were now so puffy it was a miracle he saw through them anything at all. He cuddled closer to Minato once the towel was reapplied and started sobbing again as every touch made send shots of pain through his head.

'It huuurts!...' he repeated again for who knows how many times today and turned his head to hide it away from the nurse. Another strange person looking weirdly at him.

Minato made some soothing sound and rocked the redhead a bit to get him to calm down.

'Don't worry Gaara, the nice lady will give you something so it will stop hurting.' He hoped so, at least.

'That's right, please come with me.'

She guided them through an aisle, past the emergency room for adults and into the pediatrics one. It was colored in some sort of pastel blue and there were several benches, though none seemed to be occupied right now. Minato was glad for that, the last time he had been to pediatrics it had been during the day, and the sight of what at the time had seemed like bazillions of mothers hadn't done wonders for his fried nerves.

'Um, you might want to leave the kids here, for a little while at least? I need to take some data, and they can catch some TV while we… fix Gaara-kun.'

Fix, of course, was referring to 'stitches', a word that Minato had tried, very, very carefully not to mention at any point of the talks he had held with each of the children. Obviously it was what the redhead needed, but the least the older boy's siblings needed was to see it. Oh, he knew it looked awful, but the results were well worth it. He nodded.

'Please give me a moment?' the girl nodded, waiting by the doors while he walked the kids to one of the cushioned benches that were closer to the wall TV. 'Okay, Temari, Kankuro,' he kneeled down to their height, letting go of the blond's hand to pat Kankuro in the head.

'You both have done really well tonight, but now I need you two to wait for us here a moment, okay? Your dad said he will be here soon, and I need you to tell him where we are when he gets here so he will know how to find us. We'll be right inside there-' he pointed to the emergency doors, where the nurse was standing. 'And if you need anything, just tell the lady behind the counter to find me and I'll come back, okay? But I need to go with Gaara right now. Don't forget, if anyone asks you, you tell them I was looking after you. When your dad comes here, tell him that I told you to say that, he will understand. Understood?'

They both nodded, looking at him with serious faces, then gazing at Gaara who looked at them, seeing they were left behind and unconsciously clenching his hands around the blond's neck even tighter.

'Bye Gaara.' said Kankuro, looking at the redhead, not really knowing what to say.

'We will wait for you here and when you're back we will watch some TV!' said Temari, pointing at the screen that was playing some colorful advertisement. He nodded, waving at the both of them with teddy's paw and he cuddled closer to Minato.

'When will daddy come?'

'In a few minutes, he will be here before they are done fixing you… Gaara's papers?' He took them from the kids and ruffled the boy's hair one more time, then followed the nurse past the doors and into a small room decorated in the same pastel blue from before.

The documents they had found were actually Gaara's birth certificate and the chart with the vaccine's he had had so far, which was just perfect, as they didn't really need his documents, just data like his date of birth and blood type. Before they had even finished filling all the data, an attractive blonde with what had to either be the most amazing implants of the world or the greatest gift to the male part of mankind walked into the room, shrugging in her doctor's coat. Minato almost tried to hit himself on the head a second time when the first impulse he had was to take a photo with his cell phone and mail it to Jiraiya-sensei.

'Evening, Mr. Sabaku.'

The attractive blonde hadn't got a very good day. She started it as usual – with a schedule. A perfectly clean, not very complicated schedule for a lot of pauses and a lot of possible moments which could be filled with work with accidents and requests. It started out perfectly well – she made yet another add in the beautiful and absolutely 99% plastic face of Orochimaru who saw yet another wrinkle on his forehead (which wasn't there, but she just lightly corrected the line of ears and when Orochimaru woke up he was happy to be two weeks younger. Until next time. She'd send him to psychiatrist with his addiction if it wasn't for the fact she liked just playing with him, that was the least invasive and the least stressing work in her whole career of working (after she remade his face from basics, that was) and had a calm break for a cup of her favorite jasmine tea. Then the bandwagon of Uchiha's broke in and the rest of her perfect day went down the sink.

She tried to be reasonable with them – she really tried. She couldn't operate fifteen people a day even if they all crapped gold and gave her the pieces for the rest of her life. She negotiated with them until it came down to the eight people and then there was accident on the other line which was an absolute emergency (it came out that the young Momochi cut off his tongue by his sharp teeth. Again.) and when she was back they were still there and she just had to get to work.

After fourth face she got too tired to think and kicked out the rest telling them that one of the Uchiha's was dying and sending him on intensive care (under the promise of her favorite box of chocolates to Shizune) – and it really worked, they all ran off there like emotional vampires wanting to feed off somebody's pain. How did they want to do that on the patient in induced coma – she had no idea, but if they weren't there they could do it for all she cared. Then she had an appointed consultation with boy who was afraid that his firstborn was not looking like a porn star already ("but she is three! Three!') and got out for another cup of jasmine tea and big fat piece of cappuccino cake that contained fat, fat and some more fat.

Because Uchihas were not pretty enough (and they won't be unless someone married off with mermaid or the last unicorn, but knowing their tastes for average women and completely different men it was far from possible). She was just on the last bite of her second piece of cake (for her mind as her body was full) when she got a call about some kid having a forehead cut in the frontal area. She looked at the watch.

Geez, talk about responsible parents. Probably was away or drunk or watching TV and kid was left to play with knives, as always. Sometimes she wished she could make the surgery on those parents to think twice about their stupid behavior. Who knows, maybe this time they would actually agree…

When she entered the room she expected the freaked out parent with a screaming kid who'd be scolded and silenced in variety of moods the parents would provide (to her disdain). Instead she spotted a calm blond father with a tiredly wailing redheaded kid whose shirt and pants were all covered in various dots of blood.

'The Sabakus' as she read off the cart she left on the table. For once someone with nice face made out completely of natural materials came here and didn't want to have any repairs. She was yet to see the kid's face – but if it was half as nice as his daddy's, there was chance to have a nice inbreed race for normal people (Uchihas and Orochimaru not included).

'I'm Tsunade, headmaster of surgicentre. ' she said, closing the distance between the parent and the kid, wanting to examine the wound. 'Please, remove the towel, I'd like to have a look…'

The mass of red hair was shown more clearly to her as she came closer, but only something that looked like shadowed – probably – greenish eye glanced at her and vanished, clutching at the man with all its might. She looked at the man with smile. It was not the first time she met such behavior, but it was man's duty to unglue the patient, not her. The law about not molesting the patients.

'Please, put him on the bed in the corner.' she said, turning away to wash her hands in the sink and to take the needed objects from the drawer. Something small and dirty spotted her eye when the man turned and she sighed, making an internal note to take back the promised box of chocolates from Shizune. To miss such things on surgical area was the worst sin 'And please, throw out all the trash you have with you, it's not the place for such things.'

'Actually, Miss… My name is Uzumaki Minato. I was taking care of Gaara-kun for a friend of mine… I left a moment to go to the bathroom and heard Gaara start crying, and when I got there well…' Minato pulled Gaara closer for a moment, hugging him and rubbing soothing circles on his back. 'Gaara-kun, this nice lady now is going to look at your head. She's going to make it stop hurting, but for that she needs to see what happened. I promise I'll stay with you, okay?' he asked, pulling the boy to the observation table and leaning back on it lightly, taking one of the redhead's hands on his,

'Yes, yes, kids, aren't they adorable…' she murmured, sending him a smile above the shoulder. He wasn't his father? Oh my, what a nice surprise, after a day with fanatics of beauty she got an occasion to operate the kid of a friend of a single nice beauty. 'And may I know what exactly is the reason of the wound? I know you had not seen what was he doing but I'm sure he told you on the way here…' Anesthetic, anesthetic… ah. There. 'Okay. Now, Gaara, show your face to auntie…'

The redhead glanced at her and cuddled up to Minato again with a low whine. Pretty auntie was pretty, but she was wearing a lot of white and he didn't like white clothed people. He looked up at him again, making a pleading face that usually got through his father as he understood what it meant but it seemed that Naruto's dad was not as wise. He glanced back at her, and seeing that he was left no choice, he grabbed onto teddy and hid his face behind it, turning toward the woman.

Tsunade made a surprised grimace. So it wasn't a piece of trash? But how it was possible that someone gave such a dirty toy to such a small kid? It had to be picked up from some dump, instead the parent needed to be sued for abusing his children. And seeing how he took care of his own kids – he probably was not exactly a very good one.

'Uh… what a nice… toy.' she said, trying to sound nice, but her skin crawled at seeing how grey the fur was (and it was probably not grey or even white under all that) and how many bacteria could lived on this 'Could you please take it away?'

The last question was thrown at Minato.

'It's not a toy,' The man said very seriously, looking down at the red haired kid. 'It's another patient. Teddy-san fell with Gaara and got a cut in the forehead too… Maybe Nurse-san could have a look and get a band-aid for him…?'

'Ah, I see…' she said and got up to call Shizune to the room. It was really not the time for such playing, but kids were kids and she learned long time ago that if the plays were not played along, nothing that could be eventually done – was not allowed to be done. After two, maybe three minutes Shizune entered the room.

'Hello, I have a special mission for you.' she said, smiling at her. Yes, it suited her well for letting such a dirty thing inside the area of her work 'Please, take the teddy to infirmary and give it a proper check up, it seems he got injured along with our little patient… and don't forget to get him a ritual wash up before it, okay?'

The girl nodded and came closer to the patient, but Gaara at the words 'wash up' curled around the toy instinctively and let out an impossibly loud wail that would've make the kids on the hallway cry if they were there (bless the late hour). They looked both at the kid, puzzled, then at the supposed blond in charge. It seemed that this one liked to play with quite a complicated game of doctor& patient.

But also it was a good moment to check on him as he uncovered himself completely and his stained face was all in the open beside the fact it was all in tears and crying. She crouched near him and examined the wound quickly, not touching it, but seeing it needed cleansing and that it was quite deep and with pieces of skin floating around. But nothing she couldn't handle. But she couldn't do anything with source of sickness in the arms of that little kid. She looked at the blonde again, expecting him to do something wise. He was in charge of the kid here or was he not?

Automatically, Minato pulled the boy to his lap and put both arms around him, not caging him as much as hugging him loosely.

'Gaara-kun… Remember what I told about wounds getting dirty?' he said calmly, as if the boy hadn't been screaming bloody murder. 'Teddy has one of those on his forehead, you said so yourself. And he hasn't had a proper bath in a really long while, which isn't healthy at all, he could get very sick. You have been sick these past days, you know how bad that feels. You don't want teddy to get sick, right?'

Gaara only shook his head, still crying loudly and hugging teddy impossibly tight.

'No, no, no, no!' he chanted, not even looking at Minato or anyone at all as his eyes yet again poured a stream of tears that watered the toy on the spots where it was bloodied earlier 'My teddyyy! Dadday promised that mommy will be here, don't take iiit!'

Minato stared down at the boy, before smiling a little sadly and hugging the boy a little closer.

'Gaara, your mom is always with you. Mothers are always looking after their children, and taking teddy away for a moment so he will be clean won`t make her get away. Besides, you got hurt, and Teddy really needs it, or he will make you sick. Don`t you think your mom would be very sad you got sick because of her?'

'No!' The redhead curled around the plush into a little ball, hiding it completely in himself and continued sobbing over it so loudly that Shizune looked uneasily at the door, knowing that other kids outside probably didn't have any problems in hearing that great amount of sounds. Gaara continued on wailing. 'Don't take it, dadday promised she will come! If you will take she will never come and teddy will die! Don't kill my mommy! Mommyyy!'

Minato winced as well, feeling the beginning of a headache throbbing. He stared at the doctor and nurse apologetically.

'Gaara… Naruto lost his mommy too, you know that, right? She got very sick. She had a little wound that she got after Naru was born and it was so little no one saw it before the first got there, and that's why she died. Naru doesn't talk about it very much, but I know he misses her, just like you miss your mommy.' He cuddled the boy closer. 'Gaara, when you got sick Naruto worried a real lot. He kept asking when you would come back. You are his best friend in the world, and if anything happened to you, Naru would be so sad… Please don't make him sad. Every time anyone close to him gets sick, he thinks they will die and leave him alone.'

Gaara slowly, slowly got up his head and looked at Minato.

'You said I won't die, and if I won't die Naruto won't be alone…' he said, shaking a little from sobbing that still ran through him 'You lied to me?...'

'No, Gaara,' he said, wiping at the big grin eyes gently. 'I said Naruto will think you might die, because he always thinks people that get sick will, even if it`s something silly like a cold. He just worries so much.'

'But I won't die and won't leave Naru alone.' The redhead murmured, then grimaced and new tears ran from his eyes right into Minato's palms 'But my mommy is not dead! She will come for me, daddy promised!... Why do you want to kill my mommyyy!'

Minato frowned, looking down at the kid in confusion. Gaara`s mother was dead, wasn't she?

'Gaara...why do you think giving teddy a bath will kill your mommy?'

'It always did! It always killed mommy!' The redhead cuddled to Minato again, wailing loudly 'Don't take it! I don't have any other mommy, if you will kill her she will die!'

'Gaara, you had the flu and you have been crying a lot, if you keep screaming, your throat will ache,' Minato said, going back to stroking the boy. 'I`m not understanding... why don`t you calm down and explain to me? You don`t need to cry, no one is going to take teddy from you unless you want it, I promise...'

'Please, do it quickly then, I'm afraid that the wound on his head can't really take much longer.' said Tsunade and sat down on the chair, searching for her pen and filling the patient's card. It seemed that Gaara had some deeper problem that nobody discussed with him just yet – gracious responsible parents, duh – and it had to be talked in the least possible moment. She could as well take her time with filling the gaps. 'Shizune, check on his siblings, will you…'

The girl nodded and exited the room. The redhead still sobbed quietly into Minato's (bloodied and very messed now) shirt, but after hearing that nobody would take the teddy from him (Tsunade smiled ironically under her nose – as if, health of her patients was coming first and she wouldn't let it stay here no matter what) he calmed a little. Then after loud sniffing his nose he looked up at Minato and showed him the toy.

'Mommy… mommy gave it to me.' He said quietly, making the toy look up at Minato with buttoned eyes 'She gave it to me and went far, far away… she said she won't come back but she promised that she will be with me if I had her… and I had her… and then daddy washed the teddy… and I didn't!...'

The tears again started to show in the green eyes. The memory was very vivid, he remembered as he gave the teddy to let it swirl in the big bubbly machine and when it came out, all wet and covered in soap it looked so funny and so clean. He observed it as it dried up and when he finally got it back, it smelled of soap bubbles and air that blew outside as daddy put it outside to let it dry on the sun – and he looked at it – and there was no mommy. No mommy at all, she vanished like if she never was there before, she left him alone just like that and he knew that something wrong has happened and cried all night long until daddy said that she will one day come back to him if he only held the teddy.

He didn't listen to him as he knew there was no mommy and why mommy would want to go back to stupid teddy? He cried all night long until Kankuro came to him and fixed his teddy. And he had his mommy again.

And now he knew that if he held on it for long mommy eventually would come back, that it was just a joke to make him a little sad and a little happier later. He knew the secret and he knew that once she will be back he will smile at her and say he knew, because daddy accidentally told him and mommy will be happy and it all will be all right just like before. But then daddy washed the teddy again. He did it when he was sleeping, without his permission and gave it to him in the morning as he woke up and he cried even before he checked on it, because he knew that daddy killed mommy again and he was right. There was no mommy.

He cried and cried and cried and nobody helped him so one day he just stopped crying and gave up on everything. There was no mommy, daddy killed mommy and Kankuro and Temari couldn't and didn't help him at all. He was alone. Very, very alone… After a few days when he lied in bed Temari came to him and called him a stupid baby and for the first time in his life she said she hated him but if he wanted to be a stupid little baby then there, he could take her mommy. He cried again as he didn't want her to hate him but soon the cry has lulled him to sleep, feeling safe as the hope was with him again, because he had his mommy with him.

But then some stupid boy took his teddy and made it all dirty in something dark and sticky on the road they were just building and teddy was smelling so bad and was falling apart… He didn't, he really didn't want to give teddy to the ugly bubbly machine but daddy took it from him by force and washed the teddy again, saying that was better, but no, it was not better, he was left without mommy again and this time nobody helped him as nobody had mommy anymore and he was left alone for a very, very long time.

He started having bad dreams where mommy just fell asleep and never really woke up and when daddy told him he was a very bad boy and left him and where Kankuro and Temari argued and argued and argued until they got so loud they didn't hear him and they vanished and he had no one and it was so scary and he didn't want that!... He cried for much longer that time. And then he cried only at nightmares and stopped eating at all. Nobody knew what was wrong and he would probably one day just go to sleep and not get up as he everyday got to bed weaker and weaker but just when he got to bed to read again the book with the Piper about small grey mousies that went after him he noticed something strange in the corner.

And it came out it was mommy, she hid there before everyone to not be taken away by daddy and waited for him to discover her so he didn't tell anyone he found her and protected here very, very well as she was the prettiest mommy he had and he wouldn't let go of her again anymore!...

And she was with him till today, even if everyone wanted to wash the teddy and he protected it very well even if Kankuro complained it smelled and even if Temari said he'd go sick and even if daddy was very very mad and shouted at him, he managed to protect it until today until now and now everybody wanted to take it away and wash it again and he didn't he wouldn't have any other mommy for sure!... Why did everyone want to kill his mommy so badly?... He didn't have any other mommy! He had only this one!... He had only one mommy!...

He hiccupped, making low wails as he slowly opened the teddy and carefully turned him around to show it to Minato. Maybe if he saw… maybe if he saw how beautiful was his mommy he would understand that washing the teddy was the worst possible idea and that he wouldn't give it to him no matter what!...

'Mommy!...' he said, showing insides of a teddy to Minato.

Inside lied a young woman with short blonde hair holding a very young redhead in his arms who looked sheepishly at the blonde. A photo.

Minato stared uncomprehendingly at the picture for a few seconds, before hesitantly pulling it out of the toy's insides- he hadn't brought his glasses. He still hadn't found them and even if his sight wasn't in that bad a shape yet, he could scarcely make out the features from the crumpled, dark insides of the toy. He was careful to barely take it out, keeping it well within the reach of Gaara, not wanting to send him into another bout of hysterics, leaning a little closer.

'This is your mom…?' he asked, finally making enough of the young woman with dark blonde hair. '…Your eyes are like hers.' he said absently, pulling the redhead a little closer. 'Naru has his mother's eyes, too.'

So this was it…? Poor kids. They really were too young to without a mother. Too young to have to rely on photographs and old memories.

'You are right, Gaara…. Washing teddy would hurt her… But keeping teddy like this will hurt you, and I can't imagine a mommy that loves you so much wanting you to get hurt.' he said softly, his voice a soothing murmur. 'The nice doctor lady now needs to take care of you, and I think that your mom would want to stay with you while you do that… and teddy needs to go get some medical attention too. Let's leave your mom here with you, and teddy can go get tended to by the nurse lady.'

The redhead hiccupped, plastered to Minato's chest, his eyes glued to the piece of shining paper mache as he slowly nodded and took the photo to his hand, holding onto it tightly.

'O-okay…' he said, looking at the blond with watered eyes 'Bu… but not for long… or mommy will think I… left the teddy… and will not come!...'

'We will make it quicker than Woody Woodpecker.' said Tsunade, observing how the blond got through the impossible attack of hysterics that went beyond her for a moment. How was it possible that nobody got that resolved before? Did parents of that kid actually look after them once a week or what?

'Shizune…' A few seconds later the nurse entered the room, as she waited with other kids in other, watching the TV good night story for children that hospital held for such occasions on VHS tapes. The redhead looked at her like if he was ready to burst into tears again but he didn't take the teddy away again.

'You see that lady, teddy?...' he murmured, grimacing a little 'Dun be scared… she will take you for a… a… a wash up… and will bandage… your cuts… and everything will be… happy… and we will go home… and wait for mommy… together…'

He patted the plush on the head and gave it to the nurse who took it away with a smile and got out of the room.

_Finally._ thought Tsunade and turned to the pair with a smile that was a little fake and much more tired than she wished it would show. Pretty or not, such hysterics would probably cause a big mess during the actual surgery…

'Now we can get to work.' she said and took out her sterile gloves 'I promise it won't hurt, so you have nothing to be afraid of.'

The redhead looked at her with clear interest in his eyes, but nothing more, then he clutched the photo to his chest and laid his head back into Minato's chest.

'I wantta daddy.' he muttered in tired tone and stilled in silence. Obviously, the dull pain in the head didn't bother him anymore as it was not touched by anything and he got used to the throbbing already. Tsunade smiled at him a little wider, like an old auntie, and got the syringe with anesthetic out. Much to her surprise the redhead didn't even budge at this sight.

'Oh? And where was your daddy when all this happened?' she asked, getting the syringe out of the holder. The redhead looked at the blond, then looked at her with the indifferent gaze. 'In the bathroom.'

He said quietly. She almost froze, but managed to continue on seating the object in the bin on other side of the room.

'I thought that Mr. Uzumaki was in the bathroom when this happened.' she said and got back to the surgeon objects, taking them closer to the pair. 'Where was he then?'

'In the bathroom.' said the kid with the same indifference, still looking at her with tiredness. She froze in the mid-smile, still holding the syringe up. What was this kid talking about?

'So they were both in the bathroom when this happened?' The kid glanced again at the blond and returned the serious gaze at her.

'Yes.' he spoke simply and turned his gaze toward syringe, getting a little uneasiness as he hugged himself tighter to Minato. And he looked so serious and sincere that she had no reasons to think he was making things up. In that state? Come on! He was only a kid!

'Oh.' she said looking at Minato and smiled knowingly. 'I understand. Now close your eyes, this will only hurt for a moment…'

Gaara closed his eyes and took the shot well, at least for the first part, when she cleaned the skin in the place disinfecting it (trying to not touch the wound yet) and for first three seconds when she injected the needle. Then his face turned more pink and pink until he started crying again, holding onto the photo for his dears life, but not having enough strength to play hide-and-seek anymore. Poor kid. But at least it was understandable why nobody heard what was happening in the other room for so long. Sharing bathroom tended to do many things to people. Losing track of reality was one of them.

Initially Minato started to panic as Gaara got the facts mixed, and in the state he got himself it took him a while to realize what the doctor had understood had really happened. For a moment he just stared at the way the older woman smiled at him, his mind telling him _that no, it hadn't sounded like that_, and she couldn't possibly believe- Only it did sound like that, and quite obviously, she did believe it, and then he started babbling some vague excuse about it being a misunderstanding the situation, though only for a second or two. Then he simply decided it didn't matter and anything he said would make the situation all the more suspicious, and he had more important things to care about.

'Shhh~' he murmured calmly at the redhead, wrapping both arms loosely around the child and rocking him lightly to try to comfort him. It would take a minute or two for the anesthetic to kick in, he knew, afterwards, it would be okay. 'Don't worry, Gaara… It will stop hurting in a moment, I promise.' He stared at the older blonde as she prepared the surgical tools, a part of him feeling sick and scared, even when he knew that Gaara obviously needed at the very least a dozen stitches to get the flaps of broken skin closed. It just looked gruesome, but it would be well worth it in a few weeks. 'How many hours does he need to stay awake after this…?' he asked concernedly.

The redhead looked at him pleadingly, visibly wanting the pain to stop right here and right now, but he didn't make any harsh moves or turns. He just leaned into the hug and kept sobbing, more because of the stress and lack of comfort than actual stinging pain. All was dull. He just wanted to go home, lay in bed and forget about everything…

'Daddyyy!...' he mumbled, though it sounded like if he had mouth full of pasta or other kind of gummy bears, it sounded so obscurely. 'Daddayyy…'

'Well, if he hadn't lost his consciousness till now, then I guess there's no reason to worry, though we can't say there's no possibility of shock keeping him wide awake.' she said and got closer to the pair, holding up the cotton with disinfection liquidate 'Have it stopped hurting yet, Gaara?'

The redhead looked at her through heavily watered eyes and shook his head, grimacing a little. She touched the surface of his forehead around the wound lightly, then, very carefully, the brim of the wound itself. The kid didn't even flinch. The pain was probably still in his imagination caused by nerves. She slowly applied the cotton, disinfecting the wound.

'Good boy, now close your eyes, auntie is going to tell you something very nice, but I need you to promise me it will stay a secret between us…'

The redhead looked at her, and without a moment he closed his eyes. It seemed he was having no self awareness at all as he listened to everyone without a second thought. That was also weird and seemed to be a huge gap from parent's side. She frowned lightly at that, but after all, who was she to complain? It made her work easier here. Her and probably million of pedophiles out there too.

'You listen to everyone who asks you of something, right, Gaara?...' she murmured, and slowly threw out the cotton. She glanced at the man with disapproval as the kid nodded slightly 'Right... now you will feel light prickling, but don't worry, it won't hurt one a bit…' she said, applying the silk suture to the thin needle and closing up to the kid.

'Normally the kid would have to stay up at least eight hours if he lost consciousness.' she said, not even looking at the blond, applying the first stitch. The redhead budged lightly and frowned but didn't do anything beside that. She shushed him, making him smooth the forehead again 'But if he hadn't, then at least three hours is a must. Considering some time of it has passed already… but just to be safe, keep him awake for at least three hours from now on. Even if it's past his bedtime. You hear me, Gaara? Today you can stay awake more for that you were so brave during what's happened today, all right?...'

The redhead nodded, making her move away lightly before she applied another stitch.

'My, my. I guess there will be a lot of those here to apply… you're not in hurry, I suppose?' she said with half of a smile, still not tearing her gaze away from the kid's forehead. There… third stitch.

'I see…' What a relief… The last time he'd been through something like this Naruto had been in hysterics, not to mention the state he himself had been in. Keeping a toddler awake when all he obviously wanted to do in his stressed and tired state was to sleep wasn't a chore as much as pure torture. He glanced at the clock on the wall, surprised at how early it was still- just 9:20. Naruto would still be up, considering it was Friday night and he could get away with it… Distracted a she was, he didn't wonder why the woman was looking at him like that.

'Gaara? I'm going to put you down on the table now-' he said, rubbing circles on the boy's back for a moment. 'I'll hold your hand. Just hold on one moment, I need to call Naruto. Okay? We'll get him to come over and bring you something clean to wear… You want to borrow a Snoopy shirt?' Not to mention something for himself… It really was amazing, how much blood a human could lose without being really affected. When he'd asked the nurse, the dark haired girl told him, just as he had expected, not to worry.

The redhead opened his eyes, just a moment after she took away the needle and looked at him with a betrayal in his eyes. How could the man promise him to be here all the time and then say he needed to go away? Was it a particular trait of all adults or what? Daddy did this all the time too! But in the stories that he read in the big green book good parents always stayed on the side of their kids if they needed that… He frowned at him with reproach in his gaze but he nodded, hugging the photo closer to himself. Phones and phones all the time!... Daddy didn't have one but was nonstop talking through the one in home. He grimaced.

At least his mom did always like promised and didn't go away from anywhere right now.

'The one with big yellow bird.' he muttered, remembering how Naruto threw out half of his closet to the floor to hide in it before Iruka after he made a mess in kitchen and Iruka asked him to look for the blond and alarm him once he did. Of course, when he actually discovered Naruto, he had forgotten about it instantly and joined him in the closet, until a couple of minutes later a very unhappy nanny glared at them from above after opening the door suddenly. He looked almost as scary as daddy and that really meant he was veeery scary.

Before he took them away from there he remembered a nice long shirt with a yellow bird on green background. It looked pretty nice and it seemed to be made of nice material too, so when he went home he secretly went through the closet of his and his siblings. Sadly, it seemed he hadn't had one beyond all his hopes it would magically appear somewhere, being just forgotten, like his mommy.

'Hey, big boy.'

He turned around to the nice lady with less nice objects in her hands, not knowing what to do. She smiled at him and held a finger close to her lips knowingly. Somehow he felt she knew something he didn't. And then he remembered that she promised him to tell him a secret and she didn't do that yet. He looked at her curiously. 'If you will close your eyes and sit still, I will tell you something in secret while your uncle is gone.'

He nodded and closed his eyes. She seemed to be rather silly thinking that Naruto's dad was his uncle, but he didn't correct her. It didn't matter as much as something that was supposed to happen next. Soon another prickle on his forehead followed. Tsunade smiled.

'There, very good. Now listen closely, but don't tell anyone…' Once Minato was back in the room, the ninth stitch was added and he sat there with pink cheeks. Not from crying. But from excitement.

Who knew that this nice lady had such a deep wound when she was little too?... And in such place!... And that she knew a leprechaun who came and gave her magical animals and that some were left hidden in that big drawer of hers?... She promised him to show them to him if he behaved nicely so he sat still, actually trembling with impatience and let her do what she did when he closed his eyes. She probably thought she didn't knew she was applying that needle to his forehead but he decided to not tell her to not make her sad and kept his eyes closed. Adults were strange like that.

'Big Bird shirt it is.' He said, giving the redhead a last cuddle before going out of the room. It took only three rings for the phone to be picked up. Iruka's calm voice yesing on the other line, making Minato smile a little. It had taken a bit for the boy to learn never to pick up saying `Uzumaki residence`, much less let Naruto pick up the phone.

'Iruka-kun? It`s Minato.'

'Minato-san! Good evening, how are you? Did something happen? It's strange for you to call at this hour…' Obviously, he should be just started with the second batch of Literature for the night.

'Yes, I know… Listen, there's been a small accident. Gaara fell off a chair and I'm at the hospital with his siblings-'

'Hospital? Gaara fell off a chair?' the teen nearly shrieked, all mother hen instincts that made him so good for the job going haywire and nearly deafening Minato in the process.

'Iruka-kun!'

'Sorry, sorry…' he gasped in a much more hushed tone, probably hinting at the blond's nearness. 'Is he okay?'

'Yes, don't worry… they just need to stitch him up a bit. Listen, I can't stay long on the phone. I'm sorry to impose, but could you please get some things and bring them with Naruto over here? I'll pay for the cab to your house.'

'Don't worry for that.' the teen said, some background noise indicating he was already on the move. 'You are lucky, I was just about to put Naruto down to bed… What do you need me to bring?'

'Well…' he looked back in the room, just to make sure Gaara was still in one piece, then gaped for a second at the fact the woman had him perfectly under control and seemed to be having a very deep conversation with him. 'Besides Naruto, I just need you to bring an extra jacket from Naruto… the big bird shirt- you know which one I mean?'

'Yes.'

'Well, that one, and-' he looked down at himself, wincing a bit at the large splotches of red. 'A shirt for me, if you could. Any will do.'

'No problem. Where are you?'

'Konoha's hospital.'

'I'll be calling the cab. We will be there as soon as possible.'

'Thank you so much, Iruka-kun.' he said, finally feeling himself relax a little. Gaara was already at the hospital and would be just fine, his siblings were all safe and now he'd get Naruto as well. Things were finally going back to where they belonged. 'I need to go now. I'm going to check on Gaara's siblings. Please don't tell Naruto what happened until he gets here, I'll explain it to him.'

'Will do, Good luck Minato-san, I'll see you in a little while. If anything else happens, just call me on my cell phone.'

Closing the cell and checking the battery – there were still two bars- Minato took the chance to peek again in the room, notice that Gaara still seemed to be okay, then left through the exit to go check on Temari and Kankuro.


	5. 5: Leprechaun

Temari and Kankuro were sitting together on one of the benches, watching a vaguely familiar movie on the TV. They both looked to be doing much better than before, even though they kept muttering among themselves and glancing at the nurse from their spot.

'Hey.' he said, smiling at them a little tiredly a she walked closer, crouching in front of them. 'Long day?'

The kids looked at him with tired, disinterested faces and at the floor. Well, at least Kankuro did. He seemed to have gone through the shock already and just slouched over the chair, playing with his hands and not making anything vague in particular. Temari kept his gaze on the blond steadily, sitting with crossed legs on the plastic stool.

'Yeah.' muttered the brunet, still not stopping playing with his hands 'And I wish it had ended now, but dad still will be angry at us when he comes here so it's not over yet…'

'Maybe he won't.' said Temari, looking down at her crossed knees and she hunched a little. Obviously, she didn't believe in what she said herself 'We've got help after all…'

'So what.' answered the other kid, still not stopping the playing with his fingers 'Gaara still got hurt and it's all our fault. He will kill us.'

The blonde girl looked at him with sharpened eyes with awareness. 'He won't kill us.' she said, through the fear could be said through her voice 'And it's not our fault-'

'Oh yeah? Then whose fault it is? Maybe his?' said the brunet with annoyed tone and looked with frown at her, getting up. The moment of silence went through and he slouched down again 'You're right, it's his fault. He is totally a bother. I hate him-'

'Don't say that! You're stupid!' said the girl with high tone and got up from the chair 'He is just a little baby! It's not his fault-'

'It's fault of all of us and now he is going to die! Good, he I not gonna bother us all-'

'He is not going to die!' Temari looked at Kankuro with bewildered expression, and yet, he didn't do anything because of that's still playing with fingers. 'You're stupid, he is not-'

'He will.' said the boy, not even flinching at the 'stupid word' 'He will die. He will die and he will be buried just like mom-'

'He won't die! He won't, he won't, he won't!' screamed the girl, stamping her feet on the floor with distress and starting to cry 'I hate you, Kankuro! You're stupid, I hate you! You should be the one to die!'

'We will all die. Dad will kill us because he loves only Gaara and we will all die.' said the brunet and looked at her, leaning toward 'And you know what? I'm really frigging happy about that. Because I want to meet with mom and not see that stupid sensei anymore!'

Temari kept crying.

'Hey, hey…' Instinctively, Minato did what came naturally to him when he saw a child crying. He patted her head consolingly, and put an arm loosely around her small frame. 'Gaara's not going to die. He's just getting some stitches, but I spoke with the doctor. He's perfectly fine, they don't even need to give him a blood transfusion or anything.' Not even scans. The redhead was perfectly aware and conscious, just tired from all that crying. 'Look, I don't know about your dad, but I'm very proud of you both. If that had happened to me when I was your age, I don't know what I would have done.' he said sincerely, then chuckled. 'In fact, that happened to me just a few years ago and all I could do was panic.'

'He is not going to die?...' murmured the girl, wiping her eyes off, though she couldn't bring herself to calm down yet. Then she looked at Kankuro with hope 'S-see? We did well…'

'It doesn't matter.' said the Kankuro with annoyed grimace and he turned on the chair, curling into himself and closing to them both 'Dad is still gonna be angry. He is gonna scream and he will hit us-' He turned to them both again with desperation with his eyes. 'He always does that! It doesn't matter if you didn't, you don't have a dad who'd scream at you like we do!''

The blond's frame suddenly stiffened against Temari's, his expression going from soothing to blank in a moment..

'…your dad hits you?'

The kids stilled and looked at each other, then at him, suddenly their faces void of emotions, but somehow filled with guilty deep down there.

'No.'

'No…' they said almost in unison again, looking at the floor. Then the door on the other side of room clicked and they jumped with fear, looking at him like rabbits that were cornered by wolf and had no teeth or claws to defend themselves. But when it seemed it was just another nurse, they relaxed bit by bit.

Minato looked in that direction, that odd expression still in his face, but then relaxed. He looked at both kids, who seemed to be just as well behaved as Gaara was, and thought about. So, Sabaku Daichi had problems. He knew that. Anyone who saw the man would know it too, and he didn't want to think what it would be like to be a widow with three small children with barely apart ages to look after without any sort of help. The house he had barely paid attention to hadn't been exactly an encouraging sight, either, but still…

The older man had looked dangerous, but he had never seen Gaara hurt. He had bathed the kid a couple times, and he had never seen any bruises, other than the occasional ones kids their age got in elbows and knees. And besides looking tired and hungry, these kids looked fine. Reaching with a hand to pat him on the head, he smiled slightly at the brunet.

'I'll talk with your dad, he should be arriving in a few minutes.'

Ten more minutes, tops. Giving one last squeeze to the girl, he got back up.

'Listen, I need to go back to Gaara now, it will take a longer while for the doctor to be done.' Reaching back in his pants pockets, he fished out some bills and gave $5 to Temari. 'Why don't you go buy yourself a soda or something to the machine? You guys look like if you need something sweet.'

'Dad doesn't allow us to buy anything sweet.' said the boy but they both watched the bill with a frown and a little more than healthy interest. Temari took it into her hand and looked at it like if it was going to bite her hand off and nodded at Kankuro, going off to the machinery with sodas and sweets. Kankuro looked at Minato for one last time with serious face.

'He really doesn't allow us to do that.' he repeated and got off the chair to follow the girl. Soon they were out of seeing range. And as soon as they were, Temari caught him by arm and got closer.

'What?' he asked, though he knew that if anything, the matter of such a big bill was not to be ignored and to be talked out in an instant. The girl gazed at him with calm face.

'Where would you hide money if you had them?'

He looked at her, then at the 5$.

'In the shoes.'

Temari immediately hid it in her sandal.

'It's because my feet don't smell like yours.' she said and smiled a little as he got pouty 'I was joking, silly. Now come, we have to stay here so long to pretend we actually bought something and drank it.'

He nodded and looked back at the door they left. Nobody seemed to be watching them closely – even the short haired anymore.

'Let's go on a walk.' he said and smiled at her. She looked back. Moments later, two kids were saw running through the corridors on the first floor. Luckily for them, there was no one to spot them and send them down due the late hour.

In the surgery room, Gaara was sitting on Minato's lap again, peeking at the nice lady through closed eyes, obviously wanting to bounce from impatience, but holding still like a rock. Tsunade smiled at that. Despite having huge gaps in important sides of knowledge, he seemed to be rather well behaved kid. She winked at him when he looked at her and thought she hasn't seen he did and he shut his eyes tightly, getting all red, probably from shame that he got caught. Kids. At such short little moments she regretted she didn't have one. Good they were short.

'…aaand twenty one.' she said and cut off the suture. Green eyes immediately opened up and looked at her with excitement clearly written in them. Seriously, he had amazing attention span for such a little age he had 'I think that's it. The wound should not open up, but please, don't make him go through much stress now. And of course, bring him back for getting those off in a week…' she muttered, looking closer at it, making the redhead move the head a little on the sides. '…I think it will heal nicely, even if it looked dangerous in the first place… he should eat a lot of meat and vitamins though. He lost a lot of blood, even if it didn't pressure his life.'

She looked at him and smiled a little wider as the redhead looked at her with flushed cheeks.

'Come on, show yourself to uncle and I will show you something special.' she said and turned around to her drawer. They should be somewhere there, if mice didn't eat them already…

The redhead obediently turned to Minato. On his forehead shined twenty one metallic stitches that closed the gap on his forehead, making the thin line of a shape that looked like a heart that someone wanted to draw there but just gave up in the end, leaving a piece of clear skin without a line. He looked at him and shushed him with his finger, hugging the photo even more protectively (which made it crunch a little) and looked up at him with big glinting eyes.

'It's magic.' He whispered almost in unhearable voice, like if they were in a big conspiracy and everyone out there wanted to eavesdrop. Tsunade smiled under her nose and took the figures out.

They were small, dusty and absolutely not beautiful as she was made to do them with some nervous kid who just needed to have hands full of something and she only had those useless pieces of polymer clay. He tried to teach her as he seemed to be much more talented than her, but in the end all her doggies looked like big white snails and her rabbit ended up as a 'frog'. When she asked him why did he think it was a frog, he just told her that no rabbit was orange so she finally renamed it as a 'frog' and let it live the life of a amphibian. At least her snake looked like a snake. Maybe because he had yellow eyes, though the kid still thought that violet was not the color of actual snake.

But she couldn't help that as she didn't have much colors of that strange clay. And at least they looked better than the latter tries she decided to do to prove herself she was not that bad in arts to only decide that yes, she was and to never play with polymer clay again. And the funniest thing? The red haired kid seemed to be the most fond of those two ugly pieces she made as her last ones instead of her 'frog' or snake.

'Raccoony!' he squealed and touched the piece of brown clay with blue stripes (she really didn't have much of that clay left) and looked at it like if it was the work of the one and only Bernini and not a piece of something fat and unanimalistic, almost resembling a sleeping piece of colorized poo. Then he reached out for another piece – ha, ha, the second ugly one and squealed even more, though it seemed that her real attempt at dog didn't get so much attention as her attempt at cat. 'Foxy!' he added and immediately showed them to the blond with almost ungodly care 'With nine tails!'

She hid her laugh behind a cart, not wanting to destroy the kid's fun. Obviously, to him it seemed to be a proof of something magical while she only added them out of bore and resignation – and also because she didn't want that minimal piece of clay to lay around uselessly. Gaara hugged himself to the blond and looked at those old pieces of fun almost with sacred attention.

'With nine tails?' Minato smiled thankfully at the woman, hugging the redhead again on his lap. 'Must be a Kyuubi, then.'

She looked at them for a moment, then sighed. Oh yeah. There goes another one of those reasons Shizune will have all rights to poke her and laugh at her for being a 'good auntie who likes those awful brats after all'.

'You can take them home.' She said. The redhead almost choked on a gasp, looking at her with disbelief. 'Really, the leprechaun said that he can make me much more of those since he is my good pal and all…' My gods. She almost couldn't contain the laughter that came to her throat as the kid smiled at her and hugged the ugly clay to himself. 'But remember, they only work as a shared gem, okay?' she said and stroked the mass of red hair. 'Give one to the closest friend and then your friendship will stay true, okay?'

And before the kid had any chances to respond, the mad stomping could be heard outside, followed by shouting by someone else-

'Sir, but you can't get in there, sir, the operation is still not over, sir-!' The door slammed open and one very out of breath, sweating and panicked saffron haired man entered the room.

'Gaara.' he muttered and stepped toward the pair as the nurse ran after him to the room. Tsunade stood up immediately, closing the way between them both. Gods, not again. How many times did she have to tell the psychiatrics' wing of the hospital to keep their patients under control? All she needed was a madman running right into the just calmed down kid after a heavy shock.

And just when she wanted to get him out of the room (and she was known for having a strength that could hold onto fight of people like this one) the red head squealed behind her and almost immediately got hysteric as she heard that in her voice.

'Daddayyy!'

Well, she was wrong on that one. She could hold onto five of such people like this one, but nothing could stop the parent on a run toward the crying kid. She was pushed aside without any respect and the man almost snapped the kid out of blond's lap and hugged it tightly as the kid started crying into his shirt, still not letting go of the figures and a photo. She took them from him, letting the photo stay and the kid instantly curled around the neck of a parent. My my. She should've scolded him for everything just right there.

And yet, she just didn't have heart to do so. Oh well. They had time now.

Minato stared at the pair with a frown, holding onto Gaara just long enough for his father to get a good hold on him, as the least Gaara needed was to fall and get another hit, and he picked up his discarded jacket, moving closer. Carefully, he tapped the older man on the shoulder to get this attention.

'I'll go check on the other two.' he said, smiling a bit less meaningfully than usual, not that he thought the other noticed. 'We'll wait outside.'

'Ah yes… thank you- Thank you.' said the man, not really concentrating on what was said, barely giving him a glance as he kissed the mass of red hair and let himself feel how the stress just fell off his shoulders. When he drove to the place, carefully not trying to bang on every car on the way his leg on its own pushed the pedal of gas so at the very end of his ride he was more stressed than it was actually needed for that occasion. But he couldn't help it and he just acted on the feelings as his mind seemed to vaporize with every passing second. He closed his eyes for a bit and breathed, shushing the kid and stroking it's back. There. Gaara was safe. It was all right.

Okay, maybe less than all right. His forehead seemed to be stitched up pretty badly so it meant that the wound probably was not very pretty.

'Does it hurt you?...' he asked softly. The redhead sniffed and shook his head. He stroked his head some more. Probably the anesthetic hadn't stopped working yet. He turned his sharp glare at the Mrs. Doc and hardened his features.

'Good evening. I'm Mr. Sabaku, father of Gaara.'

Tsunade shivered and looked at the blond who vanished behind the door. For some reason she only now felt how much luck she had she had ended up with him instead with sharp eyed man in this room this evening. But that didn't mean she didn't want him to be back.

'Good evening.' she said with a little broken smile and sat at the desk. Okay, girl. What's happened has happened and the man got himself a kid. Now let's be polite and survive through this for the sake of jasmine's tea waiting for you at the end… And as she was right, she hadn't waited long. The man went out of her room after five short minutes.

'At least he knew what he wanted.' she said to the nurse who starred after him. Shizune nodded to her. She never suspected that such a nice trio of kids would have such a father. Probably mother had to be an angel, or something.

Minato had just finished paying at the front desk when another cab stopped in front of the hospital doors, two familiar figures exiting the vehicle. Naruto was looking at the building with a strange, hesitant expression on his face, and by chance happened to look through the doors at his father, freezing at the sight. Minato, who had momentarily forgotten he was still wearing a shirt that hard a large blood stain going down the front of it, waved at the little kid.

'Daddy!'

Iruka tried to catch the younger but Naruto bent with that impossible ease only small children running from parental figures seemed to possess and dashed across the lobby, slamming into Minato, knocking the wind out of him in a rather painful way.

'Daddy! Daddy, are you okay?' Minato coughed, moving to crouch to a more protective stance and tried to calm the little blond clinging to him like a leech.

'That… that depends on how much you wanted a brother in the future…'

'Huh?' Naruto stared up at him with impossibly wide and wet Kushina-cerulean eyes, his mouth starting to tremble, and his father quickly hugged him.

'Nothing, Naru, nothing at all. I'm perfectly fine, I just came to take Gaara-' Naruto, who had finally started to calm down a little, immediately went back to his previous railed up state.

'Gaara? Gaara's dying?' He shrieked in that panicky voice preschoolers seemed to perfect just to terrify their parents all the more. 'You said it was just a cold, you said he'd be all right!'

Iruka caught up with him, looking concernedly at the terrified blond.

'I'm so sorry, I tried to stop him…'

'Don't worry, Iruka-kun.' Minato muttered, holding his son close, then pulling himself up, transferring him to his hips, where he could keep a hold of him single handedly. Naruto just clung to his neck and muttered something amidst dramatic crying. 'Thank you so much for the help, I'm sorry I had to impose on you.'

The brunet blushed a little, scratching the scar across his nose in embarrassment.

'Please, don't mind it, I do to little as it is.' Especially for what he was getting paid… 'How is Gaara-kun?'

'Well, he got himself a pretty nasty cut on his forehead, but he didn't need scans or anything, he seems to be perfectly fine now. They just finished stitching him a few moments ago.'

'Stitches?' Naruto sniffled pulling away and staring at the older blond with teary eyes. 'Like me?'

Minato smiled a little and kissed his son's forehead.

'Yes Naru, exactly like you. And they'll take them away in a week and he'll be fine by then.'

Naruto nodded a little and reached with a hand to play with the silver necklace that was hidden beneath the shirt, fishing it out and pulling lightly on the cylinders.

'Can I see them before they take them out…?'

Minato and Iruka chuckled lightly, not really surprised at the way the conversation evolved. Kids would be kids, after all.

'Not now, they just finished bandaging him… Maybe later, but you'll have to ask.'

'Either way I brought you what you asked-' Iruka started pulling off the backpack he was carrying one shoulder before the cab let out a loud bout of honking. Both of them turned to the sound, with Iruka glaring at it as if it were a particularly offensive creature.

'You better get going.' Minato chuckled, taking the backpack and shrugging it on his unused shoulder. 'I don't think he wants to wait, and it's about time you get home.'

'Stupid…' shaking his head, the teen leaned up to ruffle a bit the smaller blond's head. 'I need to be going, Naruto. I'll be seeing you next Thursday.'

'Bye, `Ruka…' Naruto said, waving lightly, but not really moving from his position on his father's shoulder.

After letting the brunet know one last time he'd pay for the drive next week, he adjusted Naruto on his side again and turned back to the waiting room, making sure both older kids were still in place.

'Come on Naru, I'll introduce you to Gaara's brother and sister. Be nice, they all had a very hard night.'

'I'm always nice.' the blond said very seriously, staring up at his father with a half pout. Minato just smiled a bit and told him to be extra nice for the time being.

The two of older siblings from the three looked at him with curiosity, but then they looked at each other, frowning. So, that was Naruto? He didn't look very splendid or anything special – just a small baby, maybe Kankuro's age, who seemed to wear right clothes and looked back at them with face that funny facial expression…

'I'm Temari' said the blonde, holding out the hand in boyish way as she never really knew the other way to say hello and not to look very timid as other girls who only hid behind others. Kankuro stepped forward.

'What are those on your face-' she poked him hard on the ribs 'Ow! I mean… I'm Kankuro.' he said, waving at him and then hiding his hands in his pockets. He seemed to be unhappy at her actions but he also was just a little kid who didn't know when to not ask for some things so he should be happy she was there to remind him of some savoir vivre.

'I`m Naruto,' the boy said, taking her hand and shaking it a little clumsily, unused as he was the action. He used a hand to reach up to his own cheek, tracing the faint scars marring them. 'This? I had an xident when I was little,' he said without a trace of shyness on his voice. 'I fell.'

'Accident, Naru.'

'Accident,' the boy replied obligingly.

'Must've hurt a lot.' said Kankuro and moved aside, just in time to get away from another hard poke on the ribs. Temari looked at him with scandal in her eyes and he answered with showing her tongue. That seemed to make her more lively, but nobody knew how the thing would have ended, because the door from emergency room has opened and the tall man stood there, ready to walk out of it. Gaara seemed to be practically stuck to the side of his neck, his head bandaged now, and he held onto the teddy who had the same bandages around the plush head and looked like a completely different toy after a proper clean up.

'…yes, thank you.' said the man and looked at Gaara with something that seemed to be a deep disapproval. The redhead flinched but he kept on being plastered to his side. 'I want to see that at home.'

The redhead shook his head but still kept on being glued to his side. Daichi sighed, stroked the small head again and closed the door of the room, spotting the rest of the people. Good. At least he didn't have to worry where they all were. But why was the son of Minato here?...

Speaking of the son of Minato, the little blond immediately twisted out of his father's grasp and ran towards the redhead, not even seeming to notice the threatening aura of his father.

'Gaara!' he yelled, skidding to a stop and looking at the redhead, taking into the bloody attire and grabbing onto his pants leg. 'Gaara, I thought you'd died.' he said in a lower volume, his voice coming out miserable.

'Aw!...' Gaara immediately started squirming, wanting to get out of his father's grasp, so Daichi let him go, even if he still felt a little insecure about that yet. Once the redhead touched the floor with feet he lunged for the blond, hugging him tightly (though it still resembled much of how he held onto his plush that dangled from his hands on the Naruto's back). Kankuro and Temari looked at this with disbelief, but there was no doubt. If Gaara was so attached, it had to be infamous 'Naruto' boy. Daichi, not used to such outbursts of affection just moved away and got closer to the other blond, noticing how bloodied up his clothes were. He sighed internally. Another cost to add.

'I thought so too.' said the redhead, finally letting go of the blond 'But I've got saved by the nice doctor and now I'm not dying anymore.' he said, then he looked at Naruto and smiled lightly, leaning to his ear 'You know, she knows a leprechaun.'

For once, instead of lying passively in the redhead's grasp, the little blond returned the hug just as tightly, even though he was comically careful about brushing against the bandages on the redhead's forehead.

'What's a leper-chan?' he asked with a small sniff when he pulled away, rubbing at his eyes. Gaara wasn't dying. It was only something silly like stitches, and those never killed anyone, just look at him!

Daichi frowned. Leprechaun? What? Gods, another thing that will be talked around the house for months. He turned to Minato.

'Thank you, I am really in debt.' he said and let out a hand for a handshake 'I don't know what would have happened if it wasn't for you, he'd probably bleed for death as I was planning to get back home late at night… I'm really sorry for troubles and… everything…'

He looked at the nicely done shirt and squirmed inside a little. It laid so well on the blond, pointing out all those curves, so it probably was an expensive kind of cloth. And probably a very delicate one too.

'I'll… I'll pay for that too.' He added, pointing at the stains on the clothes. Here. He said it. He shouldn't have complained for the man saved his child, but he still felt that he really couldn't just let go of any money he had. It physically hurt to do so.

'Please, it's nothing.' the younger man said, obviously a little embarrassed by the situation. What kind of person would ignore three hysterical children, really? Especially when the one hurt was so young….

'You shouldn't worry, kids really do bleed too much, but it hardly affects them. The only problem would have been to get to the hospital at that hour, I'm sure there would have been much more people.' At least that's how the ER for adult worked, as far as experience told him. He looked down at his shirt, once again being reminded of the poor state it was in and shrugging a little.

'Please don't worry about that, I'll just send it to the dry cleaners or something.' he looked at the kids, who were busy now discussing what exactly a leprechaun was and how it should be pronounced, chuckling a little.

'Sabaku-san…' he turned back to the man, the smile slowly dimming a bit. 'The doctor said that Gaara-kun needs to stay awake at least three more hours to be safe. I brought some spare clothes from Naru to change him in. There's a McDonald's around the block, and the kids look hungry. I know junk food is not the best, but it does help kids when they had a big scare. I would very much like to invite you all. ' He looked at Kankuro and Temari, frowning a little. 'Please. I would really like to speak to you on regards of some things.'

Gaara looked at Naruto with a thoughtful face and got silent for a moment.

'I don't know what's a leper-chan. But leprechauns are magic.' he said with a serious face. Kankuro looked at both of them and hid his hands in his pockets again.

'Letters are not magic. Letters are pieces of paper.' he said, looking at both of them with a little pity. Really, small kids were so unintelligent sometimes. Temari giggled.

'He doesn't mean letters, silly, he meant le-per-kons.' she said, trying to pronounce them right. Kankuro looked at kids with surprise.

'You mean dwarfs?'

'No, leprechauns.' answered Gaara, looking at his siblings with a frown. What were they on about? He wanted to say more that this leprechaun gave Tsunade magical gems, but then 'Mc Donald's' was uttered by the blond man and everyone automatically looked up at him. So he joined. Why not? He liked the red haired clown.

Daichi looked at his kids with unease, wanting to decline such proposition – really, the blond did already too much for them – but then he accidentally looked down and saw three pairs of shining eyes – one with curiosity and two, unluckily, with anticipation and more than simple begging. If he didn't know them, he'd think they were making puppy eyes at him (but of course, that couldn't be happening since they learned that nothing in this world was for free and just obtainable).

'But McDonald's really serves only fat and sugar…' he said more to kids than to blond. Maybe if they ate something good today or yesterday or the day before he'd say it with steady and hard voice, but now he couldn't help but remember he only left them with one apple as three meals for three little kids.

And McDonald's, even if it was a king of junkfoodery, it served things that contained some vegetables, some meat and some bread and also, all of it was WARM. He looked at kids again.

'Daddy…' began Temari with a begging voice and he already knew he lost. The kids were starving, the end of the month was nowhere near and they needed to go on. Besides, if the blond really brought some change for his youngest he could use some of that – his washing machine still worked and he still had some laundry detergent so he could get it back later freshly washed.

He looked back at the blond. His brows furrowed a little when he heard the 'some things' as it was probably something he wouldn't really like or want to discuss – the man had to get into his house to get Gaara and his siblings out there, so he probably saw a few things. Also, kids could've said something that was supposed to stay private or even mix some facts and made a problem which was the last thing he needed and wanted to resolve right now. But if the abscess was growing it was the best to cut it in the earliest state to let the wound clear from all bacteria that would mess in his – not the best now – opinion later.

'I am not really happy of the choice of the place...' he said, looking at the man with serious face '...but since kids need some loosening up I think I could agree for this at least this time.'

'Trust me, I know that better than anyone. I really don't like to have Naru eat too much fat or meat… or sugar, but kids do need those kind of things every once in a while…' The blond smiled a little more naturally, withdrawing his hand and turning to the youngest members of the party. 'We need to change. You want to stay or come, Naruto?'

The child looked up at the older kids, then at the redhead and took a step closer to the latter.

'I'll go with Gaara.'

Minato ruffled his hair lightly.

'Okay, Gaara, give your brother back his jacket, you can borrow one from Naruto.'

Just a few minutes later, the four of them where in the bathroom, Naruto kicking his legs idly as he watched Gaara's father trying to fit his son's head through the head hole without upsetting the bandage or the redhead himself, a feat that had already been lived through the getting him out of the bloodied one he originally wore.

'How many stitches did you get?' he asked conversationally. In the meantime, Minato had already discarded his own shirt and was getting on a new blue one with a white sigil motif on the side , keeping an eye on his son to make sure he wouldn't fall from the elevated surface and having some problems when the ticket on the back got caught on his necklace.

'Damn…'

The redhead looked back to the blond and then started counting on his fingers. He had… He had…

'That many.' He said, showing eight fingers, not in particular order. 'It took long to get them on. Doctor wanted me to close my eyes to not see what she was doing but I saw anyway. I don't think she was so bad in it to tell people to close their eyes.'

He slowly moved down with his hands and straightened invisible lines on the shirt. It really did feel nice. It wasn't so sticky or stiff as the shirt he wore previously. Then he hugged teddy and kept looking at Minato, his eyes slowly widening and widening until he got up and slowly backed away from him, still gaping at the scars. They seemed to be big and hurt too much when touched. He was not expecting that. His daddy only had a few moles but besides that the skin on his back was clear and not so… hurtful.

'What is that?' he asked in a small voice, hugging the teddy tighter to himself.

'Really? I had like… twelve. Eleven…' Naruto looked thoughtful, and started counting. 'I have… five here…' he touched the longest line on his cheek, quickly following another "And… three here… one here… This they pasted because it was small… Another here… Huh, what?'

Minato, not noticing that the child was talking to him, finally managed to free the necklace and slid the shirt down, ruffling his hair to get it back right.

'Those… ouchies.' said Gaara, pointing at Minato's back. 'They looked hurtful.'

Then to prove his point he got closer to Minato and poked him at the back.

'Here.' Then stood on his toes and touched higher 'And here.' He tried standing higher but couldn't, so he just pointed with his fingers. 'And there…' Then he blinked and looked back at Naruto. 'How did you get those?'

Naruto jumped down the sinks on his own, even though Minato lunged to catch him, giving the younger boy a glare as if to say he shouldn't have done that.

'I fell.' the blond said, rubbing one of his cheeks and smiling unconcernedly. 'When I was little… but don't worry, they get smaller when time passes. Yours will, too.' Minato crouched down rubbing his hand lightly against one of Naruto`s cheek in something that might have been either an attempt to rub them off or just a simple caress. 'Yes… Small kids heal fast. Mine look like that because I got them when I was older. Don't worry about them Gaara, they are just from a ski accident.'

'I fell too, but I only got bruises.' said the redhead, obviously not connecting the facts that just now the wound he obtained was caused by falling from the chair too 'Someone pushed you?'

Slowly, relaxing as the bigger blond wore the shirt, covering the scars, he got closer to Naruto and examined his cheeks with curiosity. It looked funny, he never saw something like that before. He slowly poked it with plush's paw.

'Does it hurt?'

Then he turned around at the words of the other man.

'Ski accident? You met Yeti?' he said his eyes widening again and practically staring at him like if he was a hero. 'Dad said there's no Yeti but I knew it was not true…'

Naruto smiled, pushing the paws away lightly and patting teddy over the head.

'Nah, I just fell. I was a baby, I just tripped.' Minato finished pocketing the bloodied clothing in the backpack, smiling at Gaara lightly. 'Well, I haven't met it myself, Gaara, I just fell because I was very clumsy.'

'You *are* clumsy.' his son said, grinning at him with closed eyes.

'Shush you, trained chinchilla.' he said, ruffling his son's hair roughly and taking him by the hand, offering Gaara the other.

'I`m not a chinchilla!'

The redhead laughed a little, joining the joyful atmosphere, not really understanding what a chinchilla was (probably a mark of shoes), but then he frowned a little at what he heard. Maybe he didn't get much, but he knew that such a view couldn't be done because someone… tripped. It looked a lot more dangerous, a lot more scary. Maybe Naruto's dad wanted to keep in secret what's happened? Maybe he was ashamed that he lost? But Yeti was a bad creature and nobody came out alive of the meeting to tell about it! He looked at Minato with a stubborn, hard glare.

'You lie, but that's okay. I will admire you anyway.' he said and grabbed the other hand, ready to go out.

For a second Minato looked surprised, and maybe a little scared, but then he smiled.

'Thank you, Gaara-kun. Now, let's…-' he turned to his son, who was insistently tugging on his sleeve. 'What, Naru…?'

'I'm not a trained Chinchilla.'

'…of course you are a trained chinchilla…' Minato said calmly, a little smirk on his lips as they exited the bathroom. "Did I ever tell you…? One day Kushina and I were going down the street.'

'Daddy.'

'-and we saw this little fur ball of blond, and Kushina was all like `Minatooo, look, it's sooo cuuute, we have it to keep it!` and I told her-'

'Daaad-'

'-I told her that no, it was all tiny and sick and it probably would eat a lot and get the department filthy, but she said it was the same color of my hair, and if everything else failed we could just give it away to the zoo or something-'

'Daddy!' Naruto was all flushed now, clinging to his father's arm and shaking it. 'Stooop, I'm not a chinchilla!'

'Of course not, Naru, it's obvious you are a fox kit. Let's go eat, kitlets, you all must be hungry.'

Gaara stared at Minato with wide eyes, looking between him and Naruto. So that's how Naruto got his daddy? And he didn't even have a mommy, he was found by him and some Kushina lady… how did he get his mommy then? Daddy said that he and his brother and sister were born from mommy's tummy, so it was obvious she was their mommy and that they were hers. But how Naruto could be his mommy's when he didn't even belong to her at the beginning? And why his daddy kept calling him a mark of shoe?

He didn't understand anything, trying to find any traces of a good old shoe anywhere on Naruto, but they were not traceable as he moved all the time. But then his dad said he was a fox kitlet and that seemed to be more true since Naruto looked a little like a fox with those scars. Maybe Naruto's mom was a fox? Then it must've been very sad when she died. He watched a movie with his brother about dog who went thousand miles to get back to the owner. 'Lasso' or something. And it was very sad even if she didn't die. So it must've been even sadder.

Gaara gripped harder on the hand that held him, glancing at Naruto from time to time and decided. Naruto had to be very lonely without mom. He almost knew what it meant, mommy left him for so long, but he still knew she was coming back so he was in better position than Naruto. So it was his duty to take care of the blond. The teacher in kindergarten always said that they had to be nice to weaker ones. So he not only felt he wanted to but he knew he was obliged to. Yes. The mission was set.

He looked at his father who looked at him with taxing gaze, obviously not understanding what was on a shirt, like all adults.

'Birdie.' he said, showing it clearly out to him and pointing with his finger at it to make it more clear that the birdie was yellow, and it was not that branch on which he sat.

'Yes. A Caesar's canary.' said father, smiling at him a little, which he took as a good sign and reached out for him, wanting to stay close to that happy daddy.

'A canaree?' he asked, not understanding, still holding his hands up for a carrying. Daddy did this today one time so maybe he will do it again? He usually didn't have time for this but he didn't smile also. As predicted, Daichi crouched and took him in his arms, hugging him close.

'Yes, it's such a bird from a nice story. I will read it to you sometime.' he said and stroked the red head. Gaara practically beamed with joy. That kid loved good-night stories. 'Okay, come on, let go…'

He started and stopped, seeing how other siblings looked at him with a quite unhappy glare. He blinked and then it dawned on him. They were jealous. And he thought he taught them already that carrying was only for small kids…

'Okay, I can only take one more of you as I don't have three arms.' he said, looking at them from above. They both looked at him with hope it almost hurt to choose from them 'So, which one of you is a small baby who needs carrying?'

They both suddenly flinched and turned around.

'He is.'

'She is.'

He looked back at them, not knowing if it was a good time to laugh or not. But after few seconds Kankuro turned around, looking back with almost teary eyes. Without words he crouched down and waited for him to run into them and hug tightly. He looked at Temari.

'They're babies, I don't need carrying.' she said proudly and walked in front of them 'I'm an adult, not like you, nyyyaaaah.' They looked at her but didn't even say a word. Gaara just seemed to be happy about being held, but Kankuro practically clang onto him. It seemed that he missed a gap to fill.

'Okay, kids.' he said, saying goodbye to his good night and welcoming the back ache without a word 'Let's go to eat something.'

They all cheered. And so they went.


	6. 6: French fries

McDonald's, being McDonald's was a happy lightened place. The time was quite late, so there were not that many customers that could be seen during the day, but it was still a little loud. Also, the smell of hamburgers and warmth of the local kept working on senses, and Daichi almost felt embarrassed on the possibility of being heard how hungry they all were. Temari, who decided that she was an adult but she also wanted to be a little kid still and kept on holding Minato's hand which she grabbed like if it was the most natural thing on the world, ran to the counter, watching the colorful advertisements with shiny eyes. Soon, Kankuro and Gaara followed (along with teddy and Naruto, who was a thing to hold by Gaara and it seemed that if one was not dragging another then it was an obligation to return the favor). Daichi cringed at the prices. In such places everything was more expensive than in a normal store.

But he could get a small cup of tea, at least… to not stand out from the rest, of course. He looked from affair, watching as the blond ordered the trays with food. Gods, what would he do to be on his place and be able to pay for those!... It was almost sad he had to rely on other people to feed his kids. Not that he had anything against the blond. He seemed to be a good man who had hands to kids. Almost too bad he was not a lonely mother – maybe if he was he'd consider 'getting to know closer' since it's been almost three years since Karura died. He promised her to re-marry, but somehow, he didn't have luck to good women. He didn't even want to. There was no other woman like Karura. There was just… no woman on the world who could match up.

He ordered his cup of tea and walked behind Gaara, who seemed to have the problem with balancing the tray, securing him. It was hard, so when they finally sat, he sighed like if he went through something difficult. Partially, he had the scare of his life there. He could. Kids looked at trays like wolves on meat, but didn't dare to touch it, glancing at him, obviously waiting for permission.

He almost wanted to scold them for doing that in front of other people, but then the blond took the burger from his tray and handed to him, talking about not wanting him to get a low blood pressure as he had to drive. All right, he felt tired, but not that tired. He declined politely once, twice, but then he saw as kids squirmed on their seats and understood that he was only making them all wait to start eating and he finally took the sandwich.

Which seemed to have a lot of vegetables inside, but also – thankfully – a piece of meat. Badly cooked, overflowing with fat and almost untraceable under all those spices, but still meat. He couldn't remember when was the day he once had meat. Sounded almost like never. He looked at the burger and he almost felt angry at the trick as he now fully understood his kids now and decided to not talk too much today.

'Behave.' he said only, giving of a warning signal and took out the tightly wrapped burger of Gaara. The small hands seemed to have problems with unpacking it, but his attention span was a lot shorter than it looked like when he unpacked this thing. The red head almost in an instance forgot about it and started eating his fries. Even if he told them to not wolf it down, they all tried to cheat on that rule taking a little too much in mouth with one bite. He couldn't blame them. He gave back Gaara his burger and sipped on the tea.

Gods, he felt hungry too, but he just couldn't behave like he felt. Also, who knew, kids probably wouldn't be full by eating just that, so he could give it to them later. He just had to not to eat too much of it. So he took another sip.

'Thank you for all this.' he muttered in-between and looked at the little blond. Almost a carbon copy of a father. Minus those scars on the cheeks. It was probably why the man reacted that quickly to his kid's pain. It was good to know that some people still cared on this world though.

'It's no problem, at all," Minato said, looking at his son, seated on the table next to them with the other three kids. He was explaining to the rest of them they could have his fries because he had actually already had dinner and wasn't that hungry.

'And besides, daddy almost never lets me eat in McDonalds, and if I eat a lot today, next time he won't let me." He chuckled shaking his head lightly.

'I just finished a long book, and have some new ones to do… Money's not a problem right now. And, well, I'm a vegetarian.' He pointed down at his salad with a plastic fork 'And I usually cook at home myself, so we really don't really have much expanses.'

He took a sip of his lemonade.

'It's really late for you to have been at work, though.' he said, staring at the older man. Normally, he would have suspected him to be at some other place, as it really was too late to be still at work, but considering the girl had called to his office, he hardly could suspect of anything else. 'Must have been something important… Will it be all right for you to have left like that?'

Daichi listened to the blond with interest, as he rarely talked to the man and he actually didn't know to whom he left his youngest child. Not that he didn't care, but because he always was either too tired or too busy to listen to him, and since Gaara seemed to just gain on weight and happiness he didn't try to pry much. If kid was happy it was okay. But now, as he had occasion to listen to him…

'Can we really have those fries?' asked Kankuro, staring at the plate Naruto gave him and his sister. The blond agreed and he didn't have to do that twice.

Both him and Temari moved to side the better fries on their own plate (though they made it fair, taking one fry after one). Gaara looked at it, interested, but not much, as he still was fighting with the burger that was too big to fit in his mouth as much as he wanted to. He liked his fries. He did. He did so much they had ended already and he wouldn't mind having a share of those fries that Naruto gave Kankuro and Temari. But he also liked the salty taste of the sandwich and there was no reason to look at something else when he had something so yummy filling his hands, mouth and stomach.

Daichi tore his eyes from Gaara, who seemed to have problem with ketchup and watched in horror as it dropped, just barely, on plate, missing the shirt by millimeters. Ketchup was not hard to wash but he'd rather not have problems because the restaurant decided to use more chemicals than was in his laundry detergent. He sipped on his tea for sixth or seventh time, calming himself and still holding only half unwrapped burger in his hand as he looked at the blond. A writer, then? He thought he heard 'translator' somewhere before… maybe he was both… He didn't know that writers could feed so many people, especially so hungry ones. And pay for the hospital. Maybe he was famous?

If he was, he didn't want to know. Famous people meant famous problems. And tongue usually didn't like stay put behind teeth as it would want to. He almost took the eighth sip and… It was good he didn't, because he'd probably choke on it. Instead, he froze, looking at the blond with wide eyes. Work. Dear gods, the presentation!... He looked at the clock. Maybe it was still on roll, maybe if he hurried up, maybe…

He glanced at the table. But what about them? He couldn't suddenly throw them at Minato like if they were packages. Not after such day. He sighed and relaxed, unconsciously taking a bite of the sandwich and seeing in the middle of it what he did. Slowly, he took a little smaller bite and closed his eyes. He could've swear his mind got lost somewhere on the way there. He looked at Minato.

'I was having unexpected delay.' he said around the pepper, cucumber and yellow cheese 'Actually, it was good you called me out there, I would probably sit there till morning and bore myself to death…'

He laughed, which maybe was a little too much of pushing luck as he didn't feel like laughing at all, but he couldn't let him, kids – especially kids – or anyone know that the bad state could get worse or even worst. He knew they felt it and it was hard to miss, but if he was to hear from everyday 'Dad, were you fired yet?' he'd simply go crazy.

'Just a very long meeting, nothing special. So… why are you a vegetarian? I thought that eating grass was overrated.'

'Are you sure you won't have a problem because of it?' What would the redhead do if he was to lose his job actually? 'You should take Gaara's prescription with you, just in case they did start while you were gone.'

Legally, one couldn't be held responsible if one's kid had an accident. Parents were kind of expected to go to the hospital and actually care for them

'And, well.' The blond toyed a bit with a cucumber slice. 'I have nothing against meat. I actually liked it a lot, but I once saw how it was made and I could never get myself to eat it again…'

He stared at the ways kids ate, looking a bit troubled as he continued eating the salad at a slower pace. When he accidentally caught the girl's eye, he smiled at her.

'If you guys want more, just let me know when you are done, okay?'

Temari almost nodded back to him, but she glanced back at her father and his gaze stopped her from doing that. She only shrank in her seat and ate her fries in much slower pace. Daichi steered his gaze back at the blond. The idea of taking the prescription with him was his last hope actually. If anything, it should protect him against the firing for who knows what, though he knew very well that nothing protected against the last straw breaking. Then the cause could be just… added somewhere on the way. And somehow, he had feeling that from now on he will be watched much more closely than before.

'Oh? Unexpected view on the journey to the abattoir changed your mind? And there I thought that if something tastes like murder then it tastes too good to not chomp on it.' He smiled a little, looking at the little blond. But then he noticed his scars on his face again and his smile dimmed. Maybe this time he didn't use the right words. He couldn't know what actually happened to the kid… seemed like accident that could happen just at abattoir. He coughed, sipping on the rest of his tea.

'It just seemed like a little too much pain for some beef.' the blond said, smiling in that same embarrassed way of before.'I liked meat, but I can live without eating it.'

He took another sip of his lemonade, still toying with his salad.

'You have really good kids.' he commented after a few moments.

Daichi looked at him, a little stunned. He was not expecting that comment, so he felt shot by it. Good kids? Yeah, sure, good kids, his…

'Oh, you wouldn't believe what they can do.' he said, smiling and ruffling the red head's hair, though only lightly, to not aflame the pain it the wound 'They just look angelic. Took after mother.'

'Not just that. They behave really good, especially for their age.'

Daichi smiled, flashing his teeth, embarrassed. He wasn't used to hearing such things, more like 'Mr. Sabaku, your kids again caused a hurricane.'

'They just know how to behave, intelligence runs in the family.'

'It runs alone.' said Kankuro under his nose, drinking from his cola cup. Daichi looked at him like if he didn't know if to laugh or scold him for interrupting.

Naruto apparently decided for them, because he choked on his soda as the comment caused him to laugh out loud while he tried to drink it. Minato looked panicked for a second, but Naruto got over the fit on his own, with only mild coughing as result that quickly dissolved into giggles. For a moment, the older male looked as if he wasn't sure what he should do, but then sat back down on his seat taking another sip of his own drink.

'Um… Will you be working tomorrow as well?'

Daichi observed the panic fit with highly raised eyebrows. If he saw well, that kid just coughed on flavored soda, nothing that would kill him until he was drowning in it. Was he an overprotective parent? He didn't observe anything like that before, but it was mainly due the fact he was not around the house of his. He glanced at Gaara who watched the scene highly alarmed, the panic of Minato obviously getting to him too. He hoped that the kid was not under much of spoiling, much less such panic fits – he wanted to toughen them up, life wouldn't be good for them all the time.

He glanced back at the blond. Every time he looked at him from that cup it seemed his eyes were so impossibly blue, like if he was wearing a highly overused, cheap contacts. Maybe he were, he saw them wearing glasses at home. But then he also had this blue color in them. The kid didn't seem to be void of it also. It seemed almost unnatural to have such eyes. He blinked, getting back to reality yet again. Gods, he had to be really tired.

'Tomorrow?... Tomorrow – yes, I will be working… trying to work.' Saturdays were the worst, kids were alone at home and he couldn't do much about it, the work was dull and he had much time to think about everything. Not what he wanted from that place. And now, when this happened… leaving them at home alone again… He shivered at the thought. But it seemed he had no other choice. It was weekend after all. He only hoped Gaara won't want to repeat… He blinked.

What actually had happened there? Somehow, it got past him. Hopefully, this wouldn't include destruction of furniture, he really had no money for anything new.

The blond nodded, and ate a few more pieces of salad, staring at the kids every now and then- Naruto was now explaining to teddy the differences between the toy he had gotten in his happy meal with the one Kankuro had. Which in his opinion was that Naruto's was orange and the older boy's purple, but who knew anything about power rangers… Besides the fact they existed since the dawn of time.

'Daichi-san… ' he stopped, seeming at loss of what to say, but looked at the redhead after a few seconds, his gaze somewhat stern. 'Do you smoke?'

Of course, that wasn't what he really meant. What he meant was that he wanted to talk to him away from the kids.

The other man caught his gaze, sensing something deeper going on and glanced at kids. They seemed to have a good time at the table and there were some people there – no one who seemed to be a kidnapper or rapist (but you never knew). If anything, the place was monitored by cameras. …or maybe he was just getting a little too paranoid after what's happened today. The kids seemed to have fun with Power Rangers and that was it.

'…I stopped, but I wouldn't mind one smoke.' he said, nodding back to him and getting up from the table 'Temari, me and Mr. Uzumaki are going out for a few minutes, take care of brothers, okay?' he said, before he caught himself. He always did that so it happened automatically, without consideration she didn't do well today. But as she nodded at him, she seemed too serious to not trust her, at least for one more time.

'Kankuro, you too.' He tossed carefully at the younger kid, but he seemed to be in heated conversation with Naruto over some strange tiger and dinosaur's powers so he probably didn't hear him. Either way, he got up and let the blond lead the way. Even if he didn't like where it was going. None a bit. Butting inside his life always caused bad things to happen.

'Don't worry. The only exit is on the front.' The younger man said, looking a bit more relaxed. 'Naru, I'll be just outside. Stay here and listen to Temari-chan.' he said softly, the little blond only giving him a quick agreement before going back to the heated discussion with the older boy. Once outside, taller male felt around his pockets, taking out a cigarette and litting it, before passing the package and cheap standard lighter to the redhead, waiting, giving a look inside. The kids table was visible from the spot, which was perfect, as far as he was concerned.

'…About what happened today…'

The other man scooped himself a cigarette and held it in his mouth but didn't take the lighter. Cigarettes were a luxury he couldn't allow himself to get back to, so he couldn't now get a 'need' for a piece of tobacco in wrapping. So he decided to only nibble at the stick. And then he cringed, feeling that he made a good choice, because the topic seemed to be the one that could stress one to smoke half of the pack.

'I'm sorry I had to include you in this mess.' he muttered around the orange part of the cancer stick and looked away from the restaurant to the dark streets. At this point of day (or night) endless sea of lights could be counted on ever street. 'Those kids just really aren't as good as you think.'

'That's not it at all!' the blond said, perhaps a little more vehemently than the situation required. He seemed to notice that himself, because he busied himself with the cigarette for a moment before continuing. '…Gaara is a really sweet kid.' The blond said, drawing the cigarette out of his mouth and blowing out of his mouth, his hand trembling faintly. 'And Temari and Kankuro… I don't know what I would have done at their age... But they are still really young. Too young to be left alone without someone to take care of them.'

Daichi's gaze sharpened as he glanced at the blond with deepening frown.

'Do you want to discuss with me my methods of childrearing?'

The blond flinched at the gaze, looking at the side for a moment, but somehow brought himself to look again at the redhead.

'I don't think that's necessary.' He took another nervous drag on the cigarette, visibly disliking the position he was in, yet forcing himself to go through it. 'Daichi-san… I know you are having problems-'

'We're doing fine.' The other man didn't change his pose nor the tone or his voice, though now his eyes resembled chips of ice. 'Perfectly fine.'

'Daichi-san, Please listen to me. Please?' the younger man asked. Begged, nearly.

The man looked at him in silence. Then he looked in front of him, loosening a bit, but not much.

'I am listening to you.' he stated in a tone that was less than friendly 'I still don't know what is that topic you wanted to talk with me about.'

Minato looked back inside for a moment, then at the dirty asphalt of the parking lot.

'…you. And your kids. You are having problems. And I know because I had them, too.' he finished the cigarette and tossed it to the floor, absently putting it out with his shoes. 'But that doesn't mean… I don't think…' he hesitated again, seeming at loss of what he wanted to say, and for a moment it really looked like if he would get stuck there. Then he gave the wall he was leaning on a small, absent hit with the side of his fist. 'I don't think you are a bad person. I think you are a good father.'

Daichi budged. What did he just say? He couldn't possibly mean that. He looked at him with frown of confusion, then slowly took the cigarette out of his mouth.

'You've either lost your mind or are completely blind. I don't know what's worse.'

The younger man smiled a little sadly.

'No… I really do think you are a good father. Your kids…They love you. I thought it was just Gaara because he is so young, but the other two…' he took out the cigarette pack to fish another cancer stick, but seemed to think better of it and just played with the box nervously.

'I know what's it like to want to not have anything go the way it should and… And to feel like nothing… like if everything's against you. And it's hard to do it alone.'

The man slowly played with the white stick he had in his hand, looking at it thoughtfully. Why this almost stranger, this almost unknown and almost alien to him man talked about such things? Why did he say something so… familiar? He closed his eyes. No, it was all… strange. Nobody praised a man out of nowhere just like that. Especially after such accident like this.

'My kids… respect me.' he said searching for the right words, as he was not good in saying what he felt. It felt strange to do such thing as Karura was always there to help him and now… she wasn't. 'I do not wish for anything more here.'

He glanced at the man with a little bitter, a little sour expression, slowly rolling the stick between his thumb and middle finger and then, bending it in half. A completely other man than from what he saw around the kids. Why was this surprising when he knew that people had many faces? Why did it seem so… pleasing when the man was in nerves? It felt almost wrong to stand in there alone, almost like if he was breaching a taboo.

'What do you want then?' he asked finally, breaking the soft white paper and making the brown crumples fall out on the ground 'We don't need your pity. And I even if I'm alone I'm managing to hold it together and I will even if I will have to fall down on my face and howl from pain. I'm not going to give them away or beg anyone for help.'

The younger man shook his head quickly.

'No… they love you. They respect you too, but… ' whatever he meant to say died as a car left the parking lot with a screech, an old Volkswagen speeding off to the right. 'I really needed help; more than once. And if it hadn't been because I had it I… I would have lost everything I had.'

Minato turned to stare at him, smiling uncertainly.

'Gaara needs to drink antibiotics at specific times. You really can't let a little girl take charge of that. And after what happened today, it would be unneeded stress to have them do that kind of thing again.'

If he felt on edge just from thinking about it, he didn't know what the whole of them would feel like just the following day.

'Why don't you leave the kids with me? I can take care of them. I have a couple weeks before I need to start translating the new book. Drop them off before going to work, and you can come pick them up whenever you are ready.'

Daichi looked at him quietly. Unmoving, because he didn't dare to breath to not mishear. To be sure, he just heard what was said. He slowly let the breath out.

'Are you kidding me?' he asked in a hushed tone then glanced quickly inside the restaurant. The kids were still there 'What are you saying, you-?'

It felt almost too good to be real. How could a complete stranger just from a few weeks ago act so nicely toward him? What was he, a messenger? A damned angel? He even was blond with those eyes like from a cheap movie!

He looked at him, nervously, then he covered his mouth with a palm, leaning over the wall, trembling a little. He looked at the other hand. Damn. Now he really felt he needed a smoke. Like, really. Damn it...

'My kids respect me.' He repeated, deafening to what was said, not wanting to hear that. He did too many bad things, did them wrong, not like he should've. He didn't want to think he was loved despite making all of those mistakes 'And they… they are all that I have. You hear me? All.'

His hand trembled even against his mouth. Just what… who… who the hell he thought he was! A Marie Therese? A Saint Michael! His own kids!... To take care of all three!... And feed them… And play with them… and looked for the hours of giving the meds…

He closed his eyes, breathing loudly, stopping the trembling finally.

'My kids are all that I have.' he repeated, looking at the blond with pained gaze, as he finally moved from the wall. Such help? So suddenly? Just when he needed it?... It was a joke. 'All, you hear me? I don't have anything else. So… so…'

He breathed, searching for the right words, until he found the ones that were not nice or pretty. They just fitted.

'…so if anything will happen to them under your care, I'll kill you.' Yes, a very twisted, sardonic joke.

Minato smiled again- and oddly sad smile as he nodded, the cellophane encasing the cigarettes creaking softly in his hands.

'Don't worry about that. I'll take care of them.'

Daichi stood there, for a moment, breathing in the air that was a little crispy but not yet freezing as the winter was not in full bloom yet, and he finally turned to the wall, leaning on it again tiredly. Sometimes people had those traits of looking oddly serene in those worse emotions they felt. He was lucky for meeting them nonstop.

'Good.' he muttered, calming down and looking at the street between the buildings, further away from them. Now he really felt like he needed a smoke. Old habits died hard 'I'll trust you on that…'

Because my son is happy, because I can't do better, because I have no other choice. Karura always believed in angels, he abstained from them, knowing, that all creations of heaven had flaws that could turn them around in the way he wouldn't want to see them. But maybe this time the messenger wouldn't fall from heights.

'…thank you.'

The taller male shock his head, still looking down at the street.

'Please, don't. I would really worry too much otherwise.' The mere idea of leaving such young kids alone, where anything would happen to them… And besides, he could take care of them. He had the time. Four kids would more than likely be a handful, but he wanted to keep them close so he could observe them better. And it was always better when there were more people in the house.

'No, really – thank you.' The street lights were still the same – they blinked every time the car passed with a low swoosh. They looked almost peaceful. Such an ordinary thing on ordinary day. Like if nothing has happened. He felt the breeze moving his hair a little. Yes, the blond had longer hair, they moved definitely. It was getting colder at evenings when it was windy. It was good it was such a peaceful, peaceful day. Almost like if nothing's happened.

Finally, he glanced at the blond again.

'We should go for a beer sometime – my treat.' he said with a faint smile, knowing that if anything it was not possible this month. Or probably next. He had taxes to pay. 'This is at least something I can do in revenge…'

Minato turned to look at the other man, for a moment looking almost comically surprised. After some seconds, though, he smiled somewhat shyly.

'…That would be nice. I don't think I've spoken with another adult since my editor came to torture me last.'

Daichi smiled wider, then he got back to looking at the street, feeling a little embarrassed. What was that man saying? And with looking like that!... Was he not popular on PTA meetings or something? He thought he saw him there once he managed to be on time…

'So, you're not as famous as you seem to be or is this just a hiding from fans?' he asked with a little chuckle. The blond was so strange.

'W-what…?' he asked, eyes wide. At the moment, he appeared much more his son's age than nearly thirty. The cigarette pack fell on the floor, and the taller male stared at Daichi for a second, before muttering an apology and leaning down to pick them up.

The saffron haired man looked at him, his smile dimming a little. That was surely a strange reaction. Was he afraid of being discovered? He knew some authors were paranoid when it came to their privacy, but he wasn't some crazy fan boy who would rip him to shreds. He was a grown up man, for gods' sake. He frowned apologetically even if he was not good at apologies and crouched down along with the man, meeting him on the eye as he reached the ground level.

'Hey, calm down. I'm not going to tell anyone. You're my life saver, I would have to be stupid to do that.' He tried to make a reassuring smile but it seemed his smiling muscles got stiff from unused so he probably must've been looking stupid. Either way, he tried.

'Tell… that's not… I don`t-' he blinked in that same wide-eyed way as before as the older man crouched down next to him, pulling slightly away in a flinch, before apparently calming down. He smiled again. 'I don't write. I just…translate books for my editor.'

Now it's Daichi's time to blink. He looked at the blond with surprised stare, unmoving. What? Only translate? Did he misunderstand something? Misheard, probably…

'Really? I thought that you're famous because you have such a nice house- um, I mean…' he said, getting up quickly, embarrassed. He didn't want to sound like a beggar who never saw a nice house. 'That you seem to be someone who could- should be fam- I… uh.'

He closed his eyes. Hiding his face behind a palm. Great. Now it came out how closely he listened to whatever the blond said to him before. Such a responsible parent leaving kids to someone whom he didn't even try to known closer because of flying high in the clouds with his mind.

'… I'm sorry.' he uttered finally, trying to fight the flush of embarrassment from his face before he'd have to uncover it. 'I'm stupid- so many things has happened today… sorry.'

The younger man seemed to finally relax and he laughed a little, features distending into a more natural smile.

'Don't worry for that, I don't talk much about myself anyway.' he said, finally pulling himself back up. 'As for the department… It's not mine. It belongs to my uncle. He is overseas, so we are looking after it for him.'

'It's not yours? But then…' The saffron haired man uncovered his face, his flush paling quickly. Looking for a flat of the uncle? That seemed natural, but he thought they lived in it like if they owned the place. Wasn't it more refundable if you rented the place while you were not in it? Or maybe they rented it? That made sense if only that as in family it really didn't. Unless the uncle was a really bad relative. But would he leave it to them then?... He silently slid his hands into his pockets. 'Where is your original home? Shouldn't you be living in it? You don't have a job that requires moving away.'

'Ah, well…' The blond went back to fiddling with the cigarette box, apparently unaware of what he was doing. '…we used to live in Fire country, but we had some problems with the house… ' he trailed off for a moment, even the incessant squeezing of the cellophane wrapper stopping. '…And I haven't had a regular work in a while, so I wanted to try, and this place seemed … better. My uncle had this place, so we moved here. He travels a lot, so he almost never uses it.'

'Fire country? But that's…' Another side of the world. They were foreigners? He hadn't noticed. The blond spoke the language fluently, like if he was born here. His looks could be a sign, the impossibly blue eyes and light blond hair were not easy to trace here. But that didn't mean they were completely absent.

He moved away from the wall, feeling like if he needed to pace around, but that would seem too strange – especially for the topic. There was no reason to get so riled up, right? But the more blond said the more strange it became. One of those people who got a rich lifestyle, yes?...

'But what's so good in Wind you decided to search for a job here? Doesn't your country have places for that? Moving abroad for such reason seems unnecessary, almost like if you wanted to start over a new life…' he said with a light chuckle. 'You can't visit your friends when you are abroad.'

'I… we did want to start a new life. After Kushina died, it's like if… everything went wrong. Everything….' The older man trailed off, staring again at the parking lot blankly, the words dying off. 'And… I didn't really have friends to leave behind.'

Friends? He didn't even remember what those were for. Since Kushina died, all he had ever done was obsess over his son and; of him being healthy and safe and happy. '….I thought if I moved things would be easier.'

The other man didn't smile. The things that were said were far too serious, far too… private. He didn't expect the man to have problems of bigger range. He seemed to be a divorced but happy wealthy male with a kid… And now… 'By 'Kushina' you mean Naruto's mother, right…' he said, staring off into the space. Yes, he understood what it mean – to have a wife who died. He remembered Karura – she was far too young to die but far too delicate to live. Almost like a Chinese roses – died at the first breeze of winter. And they lived through a strong freeze back then.

But what was the worst, that when she finally closed her eyes and died, leaving him with three kids which barely understood what was happening there was no one – literally no one to tell him that the world hasn't ended. By her grave was only he, their kids and old pair of his own grandparents, which didn't say a word as they came to support him, not acknowledge him and the marriage to a poor woman with unknown past, much less their kids. That has been the worst. And the blonde, who seemingly tired to move on and lived through some hardships he didn't dare to ask about, still seemed to be in the same place, stuck. How miserable.

'Life is a cruel thing, isn't it.' He said, sighing, breathing out the evening air and giving the blonde a strong pat on the shoulder 'Maybe I don't know anything, but you have already started this life, didn't you? Hang on, it will be all right.' He smiled, though didn't look at him, giving him one more pat and getting up from the wall, slowly circling toward the restaurant. 'Maybe that's not much of a consolation, but I'm standing right next to you.' He said, looking through the window at the kids. They seemed to be fine, talking and laughing about something unknown to them both 'Isn't it a sign of good beginning, Mr. Uzumaki?' He glanced at him, still not losing his smile, then opened the door of a restaurant.

'Don't worry. One day I will make things easier for you as you made them easier for me. Have faith.' And he came inside. Gee, now look at this… it was good that it was such a late hour, but the kids still attracted attention. What was with them being so loud all the time?...

It took a few moments before the younger man returned to the McDonalds, one hand twirling a silver cylinder from the strange necklace he wore as he glanced at the group somewhat thoughtfully.

'Naru…?' The blond turned around, looking at his father confusedly for a moment before smiling and telling Gaara to wait there, jumping off the table and running towards his father. The pair stayed a certain distance away, with Minato leaning down to talk to his son, the little kid staring at him with a surprised expression. After a few seconds he turned to the group and pointed, asking something that made his father nod in return.

Grinning widely, the blond ran back to the table he had been sharing with the other kids.

'Do you want to come home tomorrow and play?' he asked, closing his eyes in a foxy smile as he stared at the older siblings. 'Daddy will take care of Gaara and says you can come too if you want to.'

The others stared at him in silence. Kankuro sprung up, wanting to say something, but Temari held him in place immediately, not letting him say a word. So he sat down and glared at her, but she only shook her head quickly. They couldn't come! Daddy told her then, in the car, that they couldn't… Even when they wanted… like Gaara… to eat noodles, and everything… She glanced at father shyly. But maybe… maybe this time… Kankuro joined the pleading gaze, while the redhead, oblivious to that, smiled at them.

'I will take teddy.' He added to give them more courage. Why were they hesitating so much? He told them many times about that, right? And they already liked things he brought… Maybe they forgot about them? 'There will be cookies there.'

Somehow, pleading in already watered eyes grew twice as strong. Any more and they'd be whimpering at him. Daichi sighed, seeing the pleading stares. Normally, he would deny it, but now the situation was completely different. He looked back at them.

'What are you waiting for? Don't you want to go?' he asked. 'I will be taking Gaara there tomorrow anyway so if you want…'

'Can we?...' said Temari, looking at him with far too serious gaze. Daichi blinked. Kids and their inability to feel the suggestions.

'Yes, you ca-' He said finally – or rather, tried, because the rest of the sentence has been drowned in loud cheer thrown by all three kids as they immediately started nodding to Naruto and asking about what would they do and how long and how far and how much… He felt something akin to guilty somewhere around his chest. Finally. Finally all three was happy again. It felt reassuringly sad he couldn't just take out his soul and buy that in parts and doze everyday in bits. But it was good that it really was all they needed. He smiled.

Minato smiled at the group, considering if not to offer them ice cream, but then remembering it was too close to their bedtimes and they all had had enough sugar as it was- It was already almost two hours past Naruto's bedtime. Time really flied fast… At least tomorrow was Saturday. He sat back in the table, giving curious glances to the red-haired male every few moments, still taken aback by the other's words…

Because Sabaku Daichi hardly looked the type to say something as nice as what he had heard a few moments ago. Not that he would take the offer- not that he could afford to do it, or that he had before- but for a moment something as stupid and simple as those words had put him dangerously close to tears, and that's something that he wanted to avoid at any cost. He just prayed he wasn't making another mistake. It probably would have been safer for everybody to just keep away, keep to themselves but… he couldn't do that to Naruto anymore. He was a growing kid and he needed friend and interacting with other kids his age- he couldn't keep him locked up like an expensive vase that no one could touch in case that it would break on contact.

And yes, he was scared to have to come here alone to a place he has never been in, to have to leave his son in the hands of people he didn't know and trust them not to let anything happen to him, to have to get a job at a public place where anyone, anyone that looked just a bit would find him – and why would moving now be any different than before? All those things, everything terrified of him, but he couldn't just stay inside his house, because he didn't feel safe even there. He had given her enough, and that's what he kept telling himself over and over- this time it had to be enough. And either way, they had moved, she wouldn't be able to find them in another country. He had paid to have his phone and address removed from the yellow pages, and only Jiraiya-sensei-

'…daddy?' He blinked down, feeling the soft warmth of Naruto's hands on his leg, even though the material of his jeans. The little blond was looking at him with unusually serious eyes, his expression concerned?

'Mhh?'

'You look sad… Do you need-?'

'No, no Naru.' he said quickly, pulling the boy to his lap and hugging him for a moment, nuzzling against the soft blond hair. 'I'm okay, just thinking.'

The little boy didn't look convinced, but he just leaned back on his chest a little more comfortably, which probably hinted that he too had noticed hot late it had gotten as well. He smiled absently, rubbing his fingers lightly against the back of the blond's neck.

He finally dared to turn to the older man, expressions till slightly timid.

'Is… there anything they don't eat or they are allergic to? Or… something I should know?'

Daichi looked at him distractedly. His kids, unlike Naruto, were full of energy. Well, at least two older ones. Gaara seemed to be partly occupied with teddy to which he talked from time to time that it didn't hurt that much and that he shouldn't complain, which was an obvious sign of anesthetic not stopping it's working. It was probably the best time to take them all home.

'No, not anything I can think of.' he muttered, trying to repair the broken Ranger that Kankuro accidentally dropped on the floor. That stuff was so cheap it broke on the lightest push. And possibly it needed a glue because it didn't want to hold as good as before when he saw it. 'Kankuro doesn't like pumpkin, though…'

'I do like pumpkin.'

He looked at the kid.

'No, you don't. You complained very loud at the pie you've got at the valentine's party in school, I remember very well.'

'That was in last year, dad.'

Daichi froze, frowning at the child. Last year? He could've swear it was like yesterday.

'Then what is that you do not like?' he asked, challenging the kid. Kankuro didn't seem to be bothered though.

'Tomatoes. They're icky.'

'But you just ate the sandwich with tomatoes.'

'That's because I was hu-' he stopped, looking at him. Then looked away 'Those were different. I don't like tomatoes you buy.'

'But you always liked the tomato soup gran brought when you were younger…'

'That was long time ago, dad.'

Daichi frowned, but he couldn't argue with that. Chiyo came to them with help maybe three times after the burial, bringing some food. Then she stopped, making some excuses. And when the excuses ended, he stopped calling. He had enough of hearing that he moved out because of 'her' and that they were 'her' kids and that he wouldn't get a piece of bread for that. He stood up from the chair. 'It's time to go.' he said, picking up the feral Ranger and helping Gaara to get out from the chair. He nodded to Minato at the agreement and then they exchanged goodbyes. Gaara wanted to say goodbye to the little blond, but he seemed to be dead asleep from quite some time, so finally, after deciding they would meet tomorrow, they went home.

Once they got to the department, Gaara was sound asleep, and Kankuro was almost lunatic. And all would be well and tucked into beds soon if it wasn't for what he saw. He opened the door to his home and he froze.

Blood on the floor. He knew there would be a mess, but… he trailed after the drops of blood, seeing it ended in his room and he stood in the hallway, unsure of what he would see there. For some reason, he had a very bad feeling about that. He looked at the kids. Gaara was still sleeping, unaware, but Kankuro woke up immediately and he stood near Temari, both of them looking at him like if he was about to claw at their throats. And for some reason he felt he was ready to do that, because if anything – ANYTHING – happened to those documents he held in the drawers…

'Go to your rooms.' he commanded in dry, sultry voice, piercing them with his gaze 'In fifteen minutes I want to see you sound sleep or… I don't know what I'll do.'

He didn't have to say twice. The kids vanished from his sight almost like if they had never existed. He looked back at the entrance of his own room. Then he entered it.

And he choked on his breath. Holly freaking damn. The blood was everywhere. Almost like if he was killing a living pig in there. And what was the worst – almost all documents were mixed, scattered and all laying on that floor – in that blood. He gasped, trying the hardest to breathe, but not managing. His erratic breathing woke up the kid he still held onto.

'…ady?...' it muttered in sluggish voice, looking at him sleepily, then looking around and freezing on his hands like a block of ice. He didn't know – scream, cry or kill them all. It was not their fault, none at all. But why the hell did they have to go through all his shelves and throw them on that floor? He told them that documents of theirs were held in the third drawer in a row! He told them, he had to! He couldn't forget to do such an important-!  
'Daddy!...' said the redhead and curled up to him, still looking at the room with widely opened eyes, shaking uncontrollably. Soon, the tears followed 'Dadday!...'

Oh great. He scared the kid. He covered his eyes with a hand quickly and moved away. Nothing could save them anymore – not papers, not the carpet.

Blood has dried up and he could only stand and wallow in hopelessness. He could as well go to sleep and worry about it when he would have time for that. Slowly, he sat on the sofa, stroking the red hair and waiting for the kid to calm down. He couldn't promise much, those were only nerves. Normally he'd just leave him to calm himself down as it usually worked for his exaggerated hysterics, but Gaara went through too much today and he didn't want to bring him more stress. It was unmanly to do so, but for once in awhile he could let the kid be still the kid.

'You will sleep with me today, okay?' he muttered, as the kid finally stopped clinging on him that much. He could've sworn that Gaara specially elongated the sobbing to only stick to him longer 'With teddy.'

The kid nodded, sniffing. Good. They washed up, changed their clothes and got back to the sofa, bringing the cover from another room. He left him for a moment to check on the other kids – they seemed to be sleeping, which was, obviously a lie. As tired as they were, the stress and additional adrenaline couldn't let them get to sleep as soon as they got out of the bathroom. He looked at Temari. Her cheeks were stained in tears. Gods, he was such a stupid parent…

But how could he not do that, his nerves were torn and he went through many things today. The only problem was that he, as an adult, should have known how to contain nerves. Especially when it was not kid's fault.

'I'm sorry.' he muttered, stroking the blonde hair. The girl flinched, obviously not sleeping, but trying her hardest to look like that. 'You were very brave today…'

She still hadn't answered, so he didn't push her any longer, but stroked for a little more. Then he moved to Kankuro. Usually Temari had other room than boys as she was a girl, but it seemed that either they didn't manage to separate or were too scared to. It didn't matter, though. Gaara didn't need that bed tonight.

'I'm sorry.' he said again to the mass of brown hair that was visible from under the quilt 'You were very brave too.'

The body stilled, like if Kankuro was afraid to breathe and then it started trembling, like if he had a high fever. He was probably crying. So much for not stressing the stressed kids. He moved closer, to hug him through the cover for a moment, kiss him like Karura always did – on the forehead, and if she couldn't, then on the top of the head and stroked the shaking body like if he was a hidden big cat – through the cover. The sobbing didn't cease, but he couldn't stay with him for long, so he left him after a moment, looking at them both. Temari had covered herself totally.

He hadn't got strength to deal with it anymore. And he couldn't if he didn't want to blow their covers. Rules in this house were rules. Karura was for breaking them, now she was gone. And he couldn't change. He got back to Gaara who lied in bed, talking to the plush. He lied down.

'How is it going?' he asked, tiredly, feeling relieved that at least this one kid didn't cry at his sight.

'I was talking with mommy.' he grimaced, looking at the plush. Finally he understood what was this all 'talking with mommy' through the toy about. But he was too tired to deal with it now.

'And what were you talking about?' he asked, propping the pillow. Sleeping on the sofa was not very nice, especially with a kid, but he couldn't get back to bloodied room. Gaara smiled, laying the toy on the pillow, along with his own head.

'Mommy wondered if I drink enough of milk. So I was wondering with teddy when I will drink it as I didn't drink it from… ' he started counting on fingers '…that long.' He looked at six fingers. Yes, six weeks seemed to be pretty accurate number. Maybe a little too short.

'What, you're no longer calling it paint?' he asked and clicked off the light. Gaara stared at him with big eyes through the darkness. 'You will drink it tomorrow. Go to sleep, Gaara.'

'Milk is milk.' stated the kid and lied his head on the pillow along with him.

'You said it's paint.'

'Mommy says it's milk.' He looked at the plush. It was tightly hugged to little chest. Fine, if that worked for him… he had no doubts that Karura called milk 'milk', but those talks…

'Daddy…'

'What is it?' he asked. No response.

'Go to sleep, Gaara.'

'My head hurts.' It was whispered, almost like if it was an embarrassing secret. He looked at the kid and moved his hand to stroke the red hair, touching the bandage lightly. How could he respond to that? He had no painkillers left.

'When you will go to sleep, it will stop.' he muttered. Gaara nodded, closing his eyes. He sighed. What a long day…

'Daddy…' …and it hasn't ended yet.

'What.' he asked tiredly. Gaara didn't respond again.

'Gaara, go to sleep.'

The kid looked at him, then at teddy, not moving. He looked at him, waiting. He obviously had something on his mind. So he waited. And waited. And waited until his eyes closed and his head fell on the pillow and…

'Daddy…'

…he woke up, annoyed.

'Whut…' he muttered, showing with the tone of his voice, opening his eyes again. The redhead stared at him warily, like if he was afraid. Then, after a moment of hesitance, it slowly reached hands for him. He wanted to be hugged. Whatever worked for him. He just wanted to sleep.

He moved closer, circling his hands around the small body (and teddy in between them both) and hugged it lightly. Gaara immediately stuck to him like if he was made of modeling clay.

'Love you, daddy.'

He stilled for a moment, then grimaced, feeling how his throat became suddenly a little too tight and burning. Really – after all that he did and didn't do, after all that happened because he wasn't there and all the pain that was lived through at the knees of a foreigner from another country because he was not quick enough – Gaara still could say those words to him?... That was too much.

'Go to sleep, Gaara.' He muttered again, holding onto him a little tighter and stroking the little head in caring gesture. After a few minutes, Gaara was on the nicer side of La la land. He really loved his kids.


	7. 7: Tomato marmelade

The next morning was an awkward one. He couldn't – and didn't want to talk about what's happened, even if Gaara kept on bringing the topic up talking with teddy on such topics as the way the head was bandaged or how scary it would be if he slapped his forehead now or what would happen if the bandage would stay there forever?

That was too terrifying to even think about more than coloring it with crayons so it wouldn't be so visible as other kids would notice that the bandage was weird. He let him talk as the other kids didn't want to say anything, probably feeling guilty about the room and he didn't have much time left.

After eating the remnants of what he found in the drawer that hanged from the ceiling above the sink, he fed unsuspecting Gaara with the medicine (and it was instantly known that was the first and last time the redhead would swallow it obediently) and packed them all to the car. Soon enough, they were all near Minato's doors.

'Listen.' he said, crouching to all three of them to look at them on the eye level 'Mr. Uzumaki is a very nice man who is doing us a big favor. So don't bring me shame and act nicely or I won't bring you here again. Okay?'

'Okay.'

'Yes.'

'Where are you going?'

He looked at Kankuro. The kid knew perfectly well where was he going. It was rather a try at breaking the ice that was set between them yesterday.

'To work, Kankuro.' he said, stroking his head with one quick stroke 'It's Saturday, you know my schedule.'

'W-when will you be back?' was the quick add of Temari. She didn't want to stay behind. He smiled at her lightly.

'As soon as I can. Take care of brothers, okay?' she nodded 'And if anything happens, call me. I gave you my numbers. All of you. Do you have them, Gaara?' The redhead nodded, showing him a piece of paper hidden behind the teddy's bandage. He nodded at him. 'Good. Then we're coming in.' he stood up, and rang the bell. It was half past eight.

The door opened shortly after, With the blond's father looking slightly surprised to see them on the other side.

'Oh… hi. Good morning…' The man looked behind them, giving the sky an odd look. Was it morning already….? They had arrived home almost around midnight and he had managed to change Naruto and put him to bed without the little blond waking up more than just enough to babble something about his sleeping cap and getting the thing on his head. To this day Minato wondered what had caused his son to get so attached to that obviously cheap copy of some better made Disney piece of paraphernalia, and what the hell he had even drinking to agree to it, but Naruto loved that cap and he would still use it to sleep. Even if it gave him the creeps.

After that he'd gone, washed his teeth and laid down in bed… where he had rolled around almost three quarters of an hour because he couldn't stop thinking about the blood coated teddy and –horror of the situation aside - what an amazing visual that had been. Really strong an image, perfect for heightening a moment of tension… Perfect for a scene he could perfectly well add in… Finally giving up, he had dressed up back in what he had been wearing, as it was what he had closest at hand, and then he'd apparently spent the rest of the night typing nonstop, with only the occasional pause to smoke something or make himself some coffee. He couldn't believe it was already something past eight. He could have sworn it was four A.M. … Five at most…

Well, there went another sleepless night.

'How are you guys?' he asked, finally seeming to wake up a bit more and giving a more natural smile to the family 'How's your head, Gaara?'

'Hello', 'Hi' and 'Good morning' were thrown at him simultaneously, along with the gaze of two pair of curious and a little scared eyes. Third pair, however, looked at him with a little frown.

'It hurts.' he said simply, but then Daichi has cleared his throat and he jumped a bit, looking at Minato like if someone has suddenly put a gun to the back of his head. '…but only a bit since I'm a big boy. I slept a lot so it stopped hurting that much.'

The last words were spoken directly to Daichi as kid just turned his head upwards and stared at his father, like if he wanted to make sure he was doing well in the act of the theater and that parent was watching it. The saffron haired man sighed and covered his eyes, making him get back to the previous position.

'…I forgot to buy painkillers on my way home.' he said, not adding that even if he remembered he doubted he could sport any of good kind and cheap ones were like throwing money out of the wallet 'So he may be a little tedious. In any case, put him to sleep earlier.' he added, stroking the red head. Gaara looked up at him again.

'With teddy?' he asked in a tiny voice. Daichi nodded.

'Yes, with teddy… Kankuro.' The brown haired boy immediately straightened up, standing in the line. Curiosity got the best of him already and he was almost peeking around the corner. Daichi gave him a small nudge in the back of his head which made the boy looking at him with that annoyed, childish pout that always made him laugh. This time he smiled to him also.

'…as I said, I am here with my kids and I will be grateful for taking care of them. I will be back sometime later that evening. Don't give them any sweets and watch too much TV or spoil in any general way-'

'Can I have milk?' said Gaara again, piping at Minato with enthusiasm. Once he saw that his father was not very happy for interrupting his talk, he covered, showing up his teddy up '…it's because mommy asked if I will.

' 'Gaara, don't overdo that 'mommy' stuff, it's getting ol- Kankuro.'

The kid got back to line once again, looking at him with a grimace and obviously a whine that was only an inch from being hearable. He stroked his head absent mindedly. At least Temari was not trying to do anything funny.

'…anyway, I have to get on going, my boss is a strict person and would probably be more than happy to see me early in work.' he said, looking down at the kids 'I'm going to leave you now under Mr. Uzumaki's care – behave, okay?' the kids nodded 'Okay, so there I go. Stay safe…'

'Daddy…' He looked to his left. Temari gazed at him with serious, but troubled look. And that was quite rare.

'What is it?'

'Can I go back home?' he looked at her, surprised. Home? But she was not protesting earlier. Why did she change her mind so suddenly?

'Temari, I can't just leave you there alone. Why would you want to anyway? Mr. Uzumaki is a good man and will take care of you the best way he can.' She looked at him, then at the blond and took a step back, covering her face in his leg.

'…I want to go home.'

Daichi looked at her, then at Minato helplessly. Seriously, sometimes he couldn't get his own kids. And he hadn't got time to play like that now.

'Temari…' he started, but the girl only shook her head.

'…I don't want to be eaten.'

Minato burst out laughing at that.

'Then you are very lucky, Temari-chan. I'm a vegetarian, so I don't eat meat… much less pretty little ladies.'

Temari looked at him, outraged.

'Not by you!' she said with a scandal in her voice 'By the black crow!'

Both of her brothers immediately looked at her.

'Black crow?' repeated Gaara, looking at her with wide eyes and, just to be sure he was still there, he hugged his teddy a little tighter. What black crow? He never heard of black crows eating people. As far as he remembered, black crows were those nice, dark birdies that liked to step slowly along the very soundly cocooing pigeons. He always wanted to pet them, just like some of the old pigeons who never ran away from him, but crows always fled away from him. For a moment he looked at his hand.

No, it didn't seem to be dirty. He felt a little relief – it would be bad if it was. Daddy could have noticed he touched the birds again and get angry he did that. He seemed to not like that he played with bay-kter-yahs, even if he made sure to not touch anything that looked like slimy, manylegged and very tiny. Kankuro always said that if he touched them the dirt wouldn't get down for days though. But as far his hands seemed to not be that bad. Maybe it was because he only touched pretty ones. But that sounded scary when Temari said it like that. Kankuro beside him giggled.

'Too late, sister.' he said and pointed at something that looked like piece of dark blue pillow with black stripes 'He is already there and he will eat you!'

Temari made a step back, noticing the shape, even if brave expression hadn't vanished from her face.

'No, he won't! It's… it's not him! It's a pillow!...' she looked at the shape again 'Daddy!...'

Daichi stared back, but before he could say anything, Kankuro started laughing again and took out something from his pocket. It looked like a very small, woodened puppet resembling… something.

'It's too late!' he said triumphantly 'His brother has arrived! And he will eat'cha!'

'No!' squealed the girl and hid behind the saffron haired man to peak at Kankuro from other side of his leg 'It's a pillow, it's a pillow! And this doesn't look like crow at all!...'

'Because it's Ka-ra-su.' said the boy with a informative, gleeful tone and suddenly leapt at her with the toy in his hand 'It's twice as strong as black crow and it will eat you!'

'No, it won't! it won't! Keep that away from me, stupid Kankuro!' squealed the girl and started running in circle around Daichi, her brother hot on her tail. The man looked at them, speechless. It was first time he spotted his kids having such a play. He never noticed that Kankuro 'bullied' his sister in any way 'Don't touch me with this! I don't wanna! Help!...'

After fifth circle, the blonde broke it the circle and ran inside the flat, only to squeal in horror and run out of it.

'It touched me! It bit me!' she said, hiding behind Minato in horror. Kankuro stood in triumphant pose, shaking the puppet and making it clack quickly.

'So that's it! You're gonna die!' he said with a wide grin 'With a slooow painful death…'

'No! I won't die! You're stupid Kankuro! Stupid, stupid, stupid…!'

'…at first your eyes will fall out, then your teeth will rot and then your forehead will bleed and bleed and it will never stop…'

'…stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!...'

'…and you will turn into a small dry prune and then someone will eat'cha! Karasu!' and with another laugh he ran up to the girl and pushed the toy onto her, making her cheep and hide behind Minato. Gaara looked at it with frightened expression.

'…I don't want teddy to be eaten.' He whispered with serious voice, trying to peak at the piece of pillow 'But it smiles at me…'

Minato stare din similar surprise at the ruckus the kids made over something that seemed to be like some sort of craft made by a very talented kid. Kids never ceased to amaze him. Had he ever been scared of things as abstract as these…?

'Kankuro.' Minato said softly, turning around to pet both Temari and Gaara in an attempt to calm them down. 'You shouldn't bully girls and kids younger than you. It doesn't speak well of you as a person and it's not manly.'

The boy stopped, looking at him with surprise. Then there was something that could only be described as a big pout on his face.

'I'm not bullying.' he spoke with hurt tone 'It's just a play. It's not even true.' he said, looking at the blond with a frown. Temari immediately sprung from her position.

'So you were lying! You lied to me!' she said, pointing her finger at him.

'I never said it was true! I was only joking!' answered the boy, retouching the toy in a few places so it would dangle symmetrically 'It's your fault for being so naïve for believing that…'

'You!... You meanie!...' said the girl, blushing from the sudden poke at her bravery 'I will show you! Stupid Kankuro!'

After a moment, it was Kankuro's turn to be chased by Temari. Gaara looked at them with wide eyes, hugging himself to Minato's side.

'Give me this!' shouted the girl.

'It's mine!' answered the boy. And the circle spun again. Daichi felt the migraine coming. He didn't have time for this.

'Kankuro…' he said and with one precise move took the toy from him. The boy squealed in protest 'How many times I told you to not steal?'

'It's not stolen. I made this!' he said, flushed 'In school, on art education!'

'This?' said Daichi, dangling the toy in front of his face 'Don't try to be funny. One more lie and you'll going to be grounded.' he said and hid it in the pocket of his suit. Kankuro squealed again.

'But daaad!...'

'Don't 'dad' me. I don't have time for this now, but we will talk about it later.' he said and nodded back at the blond 'Please, take care of them. Stay safe, kids.'

And with that, he was gone. Kankuro looked after him, with a pout. Then, with one move he hid dipped his hand into his pocket and took out another, similar figure.

'Black Ant has arrived.' he said in a gravy tone 'The wrath of Kuroari will be great!' he said and shoved it into Temari's face again. The girl squealed and run back to the house one more time, again, being chased. Gaara looked at Minato with serious face.

'…is your house hawn-ted? Teddy says he'd rather stay here.'

Minato smiled and petted the kid's head.

'Of course it isn't, Gaara. Naru keeps too many flowers and plants for anything to haunt this place. Everyone knows that green, living things keep ghosts away.' Speaking of which… 'Why don't you go try to wake Naruto up? I'll show your siblings around and start breakfast. How does toast with butter, marmalade and honey sound? We got two new marmalades the other day, and both are red.' One was simple strawberry marmalade, because both his son and him loved it, and the second was tomatoes, because he hadn't had it in a while and he thought the less sweetened, more spicy taste of it would suit the redhead's palate. And both would probably be instant win, as Gaara was very partial to red food.

Gaara looked at him with awe. Butter and marmalade!... And honey!... This sounded like a feast of all times and he was already hungry so it sounded twice as appealing. He hugged himself quickly to Minato's side again with an excited blush and ran into the department. Red marmalade!... He loved red! He wondered if they would all taste as sweet as this one he had once. It was a pure sugar. Temari told him it was not a marmalade but syrup but it looked the same to him. With a flush, he opened the door to what was showed to him before as Naruto's room.

The blond slept soundly on bed. Or he seemed to. In case if he did, Gaara showed the teddy to be quiet an casually stepped inside to not cause any larger sound inside. Laughter of Kankuro and squeals of Temari still could be heard behind the unclosed door but it didn't seem to bother the blond. He looked at him from the edge of the bed. He looked like some kind of elf – especially with that strange cap on his head. It looked like if it wanted to eat his head but Naruto didn't seem to feel anything. Maybe because it was a very sleepy hat?

He slowly got up on the bed, crawling on it, until he reached Naruto and looked at him in silence. Will he wake up or will he not? The blond sometimes just pretended to be asleep around him and he started to do strange things if he didn't do anything while being close to him. But this time it didn't seem to take any effect on him. He never before woke up anybody beside his father. And father didn't like being woken up. He usually called out to him, but it was seeming to annoy daddy every time. He didn't want Naruto to feel annoyed. He thought for a moment, looking at teddy beside him. And how he was woken up if daddy wanted to make him go up?

Sometimes he uncovered him from his quilt. That wasn't nice at all. So no. Sometimes he called out to him. But that was also not going to be nice as he himself didn't like that. So also no. And sometimes, when he was sick, he kissed his forehead. But it was very rare. Special. That was one of those tiny bits he liked about being sick. But Naruto was not sick. So also no. Was there any good way to wake up anyone without making them feel angry? He huffed a breath, thinking more.

Sometimes his daddy didn't want to wake him up. He just stroked his head, talking something quietly or even not saying anything. When he showed him he woke up, he stopped, but if he was not moving, it continued. And it was nice. Daddy didn't want to wake him up, but he always did. It was a nice way of waking somebody up. But would it work through the cap? But he would never know if he wouldn't try… Nodding to a teddy to get himself more courage, he reached out and started stroking Naruto's head through the material.

But it didn't seem to work well. Gaara frowned. Maybe it was because of this cap after all. He moved closer and very, very slowly he took the cap off the blond's head. When he finally saw the masses of yellow hair, he felt contented. Now it should work for sure. With a little hesitance, he laid his hand on the soft strands. And resumed the activity of stroking.

This time the noise repeated itself with a sort of underplayed almost-giggle, and after a bit more of snuggling, the blond opened his eyes, sitting up in bed and staring at his friend.

'Hi, Gaara…' The blond mumbled sleepily, rubbing an eye slowly before leaning and giving the other a hug. 'How are you?'

The redhead smiled and leaned into the hug, also circling his arms around the blond. It was always nice to hug and be hugged.

'Hello.' he said and, after a moment, he moved away 'I'm … taking care of teddy. And he is hungry.' He moved away for a moment then looked at the toy which lied forgotten behind him. 'Your daddy says there will be breakfast. And that he has two kinds of marmalade!' he announced like if Minato just said he discovered two kind of diamonds, all big like his own head 'That's why he wanted to wake you up. So we can eat.'

Maybe it wasn't entirely true but he was kind of empty around the tummy and he really couldn't get off his mind from those marmalades. He hadn't tasted those since... always after all.

Naruto made a low, sleepy sound of protest.

'But it's early… Look.' he picked up his clock and showed it to the redhead. It was a white, plastic fix with slanted eyes and red whiskers holding a large umbrella, with the Umbrella being the clock part. The alarm arrow was set for 9:30 A.M. 'I can still sleep, it's early. I can sleep until the Fox sings.' Leaving the clock back in place, he moved aside and parted the blankets, then extended his arms for the younger boy.

'You can sleep with me until then.'

Gaara made a little unhappy face. Who knew when the fox would sing? He never saw such a clock – it could sing after… some time, or after longer time or maybe even after a very long, long time. And his forehead hurt still and that marmalade waited… He glanced at the door. Not that he didn't feel hungry all the time and the forehead hurt him from some time now so it made little difference, but he was a little scared that Temari and Kankuro will eat it all and he won't even taste the delicacies.

He glanced back at Naruto and at the clock. But he was also sleepy. His dad was very careless this night and once he fell asleep he just pushed him against the sofa with his big arm in uncomfortable position. And he slept and slept even when he tried to wiggle out of it or push it up. After some time he even cried a little, not liking how it made him hurt after all, but daddy was so tired he didn't even woke up. Only then he decided to cry at him and that made him sprung up from the sofa like if he attacked him and rush back to his room where he wasn't sitting. After a moment he was back, looking at him like if he was very scared of something, and, after looking at him and examining him completely by that he just hugged him and let him sleep.

Which started to be too warm after some time so he didn't get much sleep after all. Sleeping with daddy was nice but not as nice when they slept in his bed. Sofa was just too small. So he felt a little dizzy. He looked at the clock. If it won't ring in a few minutes, he will drag Naruto out of bed. But for a moment he could lay with him. He crawled under the blanket with teddy, making the toy stay on the pillow behind him and hugged to the blond like he always hugged to his father. After a few minutes, he was out of this world like a switched off bubble.

The blond smiled and pulled the covers back up, curling to Gaara's, by comparison, colder boy and nuzzled against him, patting him lightly. It took him just about as long as the other to fall back asleep. In the meantime, Minato had managed to get Kankuro to stop chasing his sister and then showed the kids around so they would know where things like the bathroom and the kitchen were, then let them just look around to satisfy their curiosity. It hurt a little that both through the old Sega genesis and Family consoles he owned were brand new models as they had never seen anything like those.

Generation of PSP and such. It was only after several minutes he noticed that he hadn't seen his son or his little friend around, and he was quick to set to look for them, not that he had to go too far. Both kids were curled up in bed, sleeping peacefully. With a smile, he turned the door almost completely close and made a sign for the older kids to keep quiet and follow him to the kitchen.

'Okay.' he said once he had the both of them in front of him 'The kids are going to sleep a little more while I get breakfast done. We are going to have toast with butter and marmalade. Gaara asked for milk, are you going to want that too? I also have apple and orange juice.'

Kankuro and Temari looked at him, then at each other. Apple and orange juice? Who would miss such an occasion?

'Apple juice, please!' said Kankuro.

'Orange juice!' said Temari 'And milk!' she added quickly. Then they both looked at him like if they challenged him. Will he take all of them, or not? They hadn't got anything like that since forever, and they heard many stories from Gaara already. From what they heard – the man had e v e r y t h I n g .

Minato just smiled and turned around to find some glasses from one of the cabinets and went to the fridge, taking both bottles of juice and serving some to the kids.

'There you go.' he said, giving them the glasses and the closed bottles 'Would you do me a favor and take them to the table in the living and help me set the table? I'm going to start with the toast.' Crouching low to get a bag of sliced bread and the toaster out of place, he started busing himself with it. 'Are you going to want your milk hot or cold?'

Temari and Kankuro looked at themselves again, then at the served bottles. The darned juices seemed to be r e a l. They both took the glasses in their hands and felt the cold seeping through the glass in their hands. They exchanged glanced and nodded. If it was a dream, then at least they were going to wake up together. They took the sips simultaneously. Then, without a hesitance, they exchanged glasses and took another sip. It tasted good. And was definitely, really, seriously not fake. They both looked at Minato and started giggling. Now they knew the truth. Santa was not old man with beard and big tummy. Santa was a handsome blond with a kid.

They stood off the table, glued to their glasses as they drank without a breath. Kankuro only stopped for a moment to mutter 'Hot, please.' which followed by Temari's 'I'd like cold one'. Before they got to the table in next room they drank the whole glasses. After pouring themselves another ones (this time exchanging the flavors) they were back in the kitchen quicker than one could say 'run'. After entering it they knew perfectly well what was the best spot to stand in. It was just right to Minato. Now, if the blond just looked down, he could see each pair of eyes staring at him from the floor, both occupied with drinking from their glasses still and observing him.

Minato looked down at the kids –both which seemed to be awfully busy with staring at him with deeply concentrated expression- and smiled a little nervously as he finished setting the toaster.

'I'm still going to be busy with this for a few moments…' he said, opening the cabinet again and starting to lay down some more glasses, cups and plates. 'Could you take this to the table as well, please?'

At exactly 9:30, the clock on Naruto's nightstand started letting out some cheery music interrupted by occasional barking from the clock. Naruto nuzzled a bit against the top of Gaara's head, as the redhead was curled mostly on his chest, and after some complaining noises woke up, pushing the fox's nose to make the alarm stop.

'Gaara, now we have to get up.' he said, patting the redhead some more. He smelled breakfast.

The redhead frowned a little, then let out a whine, wanting to cover up or just snuggle to the warmth and stay like that. But it all seemed in vain as someone just wanted so desperately to wake him up. He cracked open one eye. Naruto. What was Naruto doing in his bed?... He slowly got up, yawning. He snuggled his teddy almost out of a habit and looked around with groggy eyes. Nice room. Not his. Looked like something from a dream. Like Naruto's bedroom… Ah. Of course. He was at Naruto's. He smiled at him.

'Mornin'…' he said and slowly crawled out of bed. It seemed to be nicely heated and all, but he smelled something nice coming from other room and his hunger quickly let out a threatening growl out of his stomach. He shushed up teddy, because teddies were always afraid of those growls and extended his hand to Naruto 'Let's go.'

'I have to brush my teeth first.' the blond yawned, peeling off his green pajamas with bright fish cake slices on them. 'You go, I'll be there in a bit.'

Gaara nodded, observing the blond for a bit as his body just seemed to be a little sluggish still and walked out of the room, looking around. The place seemed to look very nice after waking up. Probably because no window was having blinds shut like at his home. He walked after the smell, seeing a nicely served table, until he found his brother and sister, walking after the blond like on invisible ropes. It seemed to be very reasonable – this, what were they doing. Without a second thought, he joined them. Now, if Minato looked down, he could spot also two pairs of other eyes observing him – green ones with curiosity and black buttons of quiet approval of whatever the redhead did.

'Hi, Gaara.' Minato said once he realized there was a new member to the party. 'Did you have a nice nap?'

The redhead nodded, peering at his hands. Nice nap was nice.

'What, the baby slept again?' said Kankuro with an ounce of teasing in his voice. Temari looked at him with amusement.

'…says the baby who just yawned a few seconds ago.'

'Did not.' said Kankuro, looking at Temari. Then he turned to the blonde 'I didn't yawn at all!'

'You did!' said Temari with sing-songy voice, then hid her smile behind a hand as Gaara looked at him with curious gaze, as if yawning Kankuro was a spectacular show.

'I didn't yawn!' said the boy, making Gaara lose his interest and get back to peeking at Minato's hands. 'I didn't.'

'You did.'

'Did not!'

'Did too!'

'Did not!'

'Did too!'

'Kuroari!'

'No!' The blonde immediately hid herself behind Minato's knees, looking at Kankuro with a wary glance. The boy stood, clacking the figure against her and smiled.

'I didn't yawn.' he said and made the doll unclasp it's insides. Temari glared.

'…you did.' she said bravely. After a moment, another circle of chase was spun around Minato's legs.

'Kids. Kids!' It was only after hugging Kankuro still that he got them to stop. 'Kankuro, please stop bullying your sister, and stop fighting. Gaara had a very bad blow yesterday and took it very well, but the doctor said he needed to rest as much as he wanted, so if he wants to take a nap, you should let him.' He let go of the short brunet, ruffling his hair lightly and feeling again a little surreal at how much like his father he looked. 'And the both of you also went to sleep very late and woke up early, so if you happened to be tired, a nap would do you good. But after breakfast, just sit-'

'Morning, daddy.' his mini-me finally appeared, running up to him and hugging himself to his side. 'Good morning… Naru, did you put the pullover with the back at front again?'

'Maybe…?' Naruto looked down at the orange fabric, tugging on the neck- it did feel uncomfortable. Minato sighed and let go of Kankuro to help his kid take the arms off the thing and turn it around, fixing it back in place, then pushed him to the table. 'Gaara, Naru, are you going to want hot or cold milk?' Naruto made a face- he didn't like milk much.

'I'll have juice.'

'You have to drink milk.' his father reminded him from the kitchen.

'I`ll drink it later!'

The redhead blinked and came closer.

'Milk is yummy.' he said simply. He liked milk. Milk tasted funny in comparison to water and juices, but nothing tasted like milk. Especially when he was sick. Some time ago daddy used to make him milk with honey when his throat hurt, now he only fed him onions. But milk was good without honey too. 'And mommy says it's good to drink milk. But if you don't want it, teddy will drink it.'

Minato shook his head as he continued piling toast on a plate.

'I`ll be having tea, Gaara. But you can have your milk hot or cold, just tell me how you like it more.'

'What's the difference?'

Temari started giggling again. Kankuro looked at Gaara as if he was stupid. Kids.

'If you have hot milk you can have it cold, but you can't have cold milk hot.' Gaara gazed at his brother for a moment, then turned to watching the plate with toasts again.

'Make it yummy.' he stated. What did it matter if it was hot or cold? He liked milk no matter if it was very warm or not. Milk always tasted the same. Maybe not that one time when they froze it and tried to eat it. It tasted mostly like water then. The blonde girl looked at him and started tugging at Minato's pants.

'Make it warm for him, he is sicklish.' she said, then looked at him some more. She opened her mouth once, twice, then she looked at the floor. Kankuro started staring at her with confused glare. She shot him a shooing glance and blushed a little. That was not as easy as it seemed. She shouldn't be vain. But… but…

'Can I have milk in this pretty teacup with flowers?...' Kankuro looked at her. What? She wanted to drink it from special cup? She glared openly back. Girls and their stupid petty needs!... He looked at the table. Cups, or glasses… what was the difference? But then he spotted this funny jug behind a glass. It seemed to be all in stripes and if he wasn't wrong, it looked like a purple kitty. And it appealed to him. Very. He turned to Minato.

'M-me too.' he said, watching it like if it could vanish once he would turn his gaze away. Gaara looked at them and shrugged. To him it was all good as long as he got his milk.

'Of course.'

The siblings looked at him for a moment like if they didn't believe what was said. Then, they looked at each other.

'Start eating' he said. They looked at the pile of toasts. They looked very tasty… Kankuro tentatively reached out for one piece.

'No!...' hissed Temari, confirming what he thought, so he backed down without complaint. They all knew what it meant – even Gaara. In home no meal was started before father didn't sit down. If they did, they were showed their way to their room without food. It resulted pretty well as they became more and more hungry last times – the food was always not touched until father sliced it into fair portions. If he didn't, somebody would have ended probably more hungry and much more unhappy.

So they sat and stared at the pile of toasts like if it was made of gold.

'…m hungry.' mumbled Kankuro, laying with his chin on the table. Temari without word gave him her cup. Gaara, on the change, instead of looking at food, watched the older blond like if he wanted to bore holes in his back. When he did that at home, daddy hurried up and sat down quicker. Maybe it would work here too.

Naruto stared at them quizzically.

'What are you guys doing…?' reaching for one slice of bread and concentrating on smearing half of it with the contents of the half finished blueberry marmalade and the other with strawberry 'Eat it, it's good.'

He took a bite, as if to prove it. Apparently it wasn't only Gaara who acted weird when food was involved… Maybe it was the whole family.

'Waiting…' said Kankuro with frown. What was the blond doing?... Temari looked at him with something close to fear. What if Naruto's dad would send them off to bed because Naruto took the piece himself? But she didn't dare to protest, it was blond's house and it was his rules and doings. She just glanced back and forth at the piece of bread Naruto held and back to the older blond who seemed to not notice anything yet.

'Could you put that down?...' she asked finally. Maybe it could be explained as self-eating toast or something. The blond seemed to be more believable in such explanations than their father. 'Don't eat that!...'

Gaara looked at the blond and grimaced. Now look what he did. There will be no food. He didn't expect that from him. He didn't want to be send back. He blinked and, letting tears fall and hugged the teddy close, shaking slightly. Kankuro looked at the man with concentration, then, with one quick move he grabbed the piece of toast and hid it under the table. He could give it to them later or eat alone, it didn't matter. But he was not walking away with empty hands once he saw all this.

'Hey, careful, you'll stain the floor!' The blond said, getting up to try to get it back.

'What's going on?' Minato was back, carrying both glasses with steaming milk, leaving one in front of the redhead and another in front of his brother.

'Nothing!' said Kankuro, hiding the toast further and trying to look like if he was just sitting loosely. Temari looked at him, petrified and backed away on the stool.

'We didn't do it!' she said finally, looking at him like if she wanted to make him believe her 'We didn't touch anything!'

Gaara just hid his face behind teddy and kept crying.

'Gaara…! What happened?' without hesitation, he took the little kid in his arms and sat down with him on his lap on the couch, trying to soothe him.

'I don't know!' Naruto sounded scared now 'I was just eating toast and then he hid it!' he said, pointing at Kankuro. Minato turned to the kids with a confused

'Is something wrong? Did he get hurt?'

Gaara hugged himself closer, still crying. It felt nice to be hugged like that, but… but what now? He was promised to taste two red marmalades and there was this toast and even a cup of milk which he didn't have and Temari and Kankuro already did… and now it was all gone. It wasn't fair…

'I'm hungry…' he finally whispered, despite what father kept on telling him. He was. He wanted to eat.

'No, you're not!' said Temari, standing up from the chair and looking at the kid with desperation 'No one is! We're fine!' she said, breathing quickly. Now Gaara was worsening the situation. Why? It all was seeming to be so good already. And now…

'Yes, he is.' Finally said Kankuro, looking at her with hollow gaze 'And so am I.'

'No, you aren't!' she shot back, looking at him 'You're just stupid!'

Kankuro didn't change his expression.

'You're the stupid one. You're just as hungry as we are.' he said and slowly took out the toast from the hiding. It stained his fingers and didn't look very pretty. But it was food. 'I'm not giving it back.' he said, glaring at Minato. Temari looked like if she was ready to cry herself.

'Daddy will be mad.' she said and sat down, looking at the pile of toasts 'I'm not hungry.' And to tell the truth, she wasn't anymore. The sole idea of father being angry at them made her stomach tie into a tight knot.

Gaara just kept on hiding his head.

Minato looked at his son, who usually was more in tune with the odd things Gaara said or did- but it seemed this time he was on his own, Naruto looked as confused as he felt.

'Why would your father be angry? If you are hungry, why don't you eat? You don't like toast?'

'Gaara likes toast. He told me so.' Naruto said from his spot, also hungry, but not daring to touch anything on the table after what had happened. Minato just stared at the kids and hugged Gaara a little tighter.

'We do.' said Kankuro, still not letting go of the piece of bread, but not doing anything else with it. 'I don't remember when we ate it…'

'But daddy just forgets to bring things home!' quickly added Temari, again standing up from her chair 'It's not like he can't, he just forgets!'

'I wish he didn't forget so often.' said Kankuro and looked back at Naruto 'We really didn't touch anything. It was him who started eating.' he said. Temari hissed.

'Don't say that!...' she said, looking at the little blond 'He didn't mean that!'

'Why not, he started eating after all!' the brunet shouted back. He was starting to get angry from all this 'We just sat and waited for Mr. Uzumaki to sit down with us and he started!'

'But it's his house so he can do what he wants!'

'Not if it means that we won't be eating anything! I haven't eaten breakfast from five days! He can eat whenever he wants whatever he wants, he lives here! We don't have anything like that home!' he said, pointing at the fridge. Temari sat down. Kankuro was right.

'But we're not hungry.' she said with stubbornness. Kankuro looked down at the floor, not daring to protest.

Gaara finally looked at the blonde, then at his teddy and hugged it, trying to breathe through his mouth. His nose felt too stuffed.

'Daddy is mad if we eat before he eats.' he said. The siblings didn't move 'Even teddy knows we don't eat before he eats. It makes him mad. But I want to eat!...' he sobbed again hugging to the teddy and making a whimper. 'I am hungry! Daddy says I'm not but I am! Why does he gets mad when we're hungry?... Kankuro shrugged.

'Maybe because we're rude.'

'Only little babies need to eat all the time. Daddy doesn't eat at all and he doesn't cry like Gaara.'

'Yeah, I wonder how he does that.' said the boy and dangled his feet slowly 'I wish I could do that too.'

'Daddy is just awesome.'

'Yeah.'

But somehow, it didn't lift their spirits at all.

Naruto was staring at them all with his mouth slightly agape. Obviously he didn't understand much of the issue, but what he did was enough to scare him.

'Oh… guys…' Minato sat down with them at the table, still keeping Gaara on his lap and rocking him lightly. 'Listen, I know things are really hard for you all right now, but your dad cares for you all and he's trying really hard. Sometimes things get really difficult and adults make things that don't make sense to you kids… and maybe they aren't fair, but they aren't really meant to hurt you. We do the best we can…' he trailed off, ruffling the red head on his lap.

What was going on with this kid's life? He really didn't get it. As far as he saw it, their father slaved himself on work and the kids were kept clean and didn't have marks on them- But where was his money going? Gaara had mentioned his father to be always tired, and man, did he look the part, so he doubted he was spending it on women or drinking…

'As for the food… Waiting for other people at the table is good manners, but I did tell you you could eat, didn't I? It's okay. I did it for you, I don't really sit down to eat, I always have things to do in the meantime, so I just have something while doing this and that.'

'He does.' the little blond chirped in. 'He`s always on the phone.'

'Dad was always on the phone too.' said Kankuro, slowly readjusting himself and the chair to the right position. 'But now… he is on the phone too.'

Temari nodded. Since he found out Kankuro's cell phone he started using is as his own and Kankuro really didn't mind. If that meant he'd pick up anytime, he could take all cell phones on the world he'd obtain. It really wasn't that expensive too. Then they both looked at the blond again. Gaara was slowly calming down.

'We know dad is not hurting us. He is awesome.' said the older boy, looking at him, then slowly letting go of the toast above his plate. It fell down with sticky 'splot'. He let his hand dangle like that since he didn't know what to do with the marmalade 'And he just wants us to be awesome too. But we fail.'

'We just have to try harder.' said Temari, but without much of assurance in her voice. She didn't know how to try harder more after all. The both looked at themselves then at the plate.

'Can we really eat that after all what's happened?...' It was Gaara, who calmed enough to look at the blond from his spot. It felt a little unbelievable that he didn't get angry at them and send them off yet.

'But you could have told us earlier.' said Temari, looking at him with a little grievance 'How were we supposed to know we can eat because you don't sit down?'

'Right.' said Kankuro, looking at him also with pout 'Only because you have some strange rules doesn't mean that's how everywhere people eat.'

'But he is sitting now.' said Gaara, leaning back on Minato's chest and slowly wiping off his tears with palms 'And he won't go talk to the phone because teddy says it's nice here and if he wants to then teddy will go with him and will be listening to aaall his talkings on the phone.'

'Gaara, that's rude!...' said Temari, again looking at Minato and any signs of annoyance.

'Not sitting with us is rude.' he said with a little frown 'Daddy sits down when we're hungry.'

'Well, I think you are all awesome kids.' the oldest blond said decisively. 'And I did tell you to start eating, didn't I? Go on, really. Cold toast is not as good as warm one.'

Reaching at the table, he took Gaara's now warm milk and offered him the glass, not making any attempts to get the redhead off him. 'And you might be right, but I really need to take those calls. They are for work, and the people I work for live on the other side of the world, so they call whenever they can. Right now it's nighttime for them. I can sit with you as long as they don't call, all right?'

Kankuro and Temari looked at each other. They were awesome? How come? They were not even doing as daddy wanted. But it was nice to hear that…

'Thanks.' They said in unison, gazing at him a little timidly. Gaara looked back at him with emotionless face.

'You are rude.' he stated plainly, just as his daddy did when he did something very shameful 'You don't get up from the table until everyone ends eating.'

Then he reached out for his milk and started drinking it slowly. It worked well on his throat. Made it all warm and relaxed. It didn't sting anymore as it did when he cried. Temari and Kankuro looked at him for a moment in silence. Then they glanced at Minato and suddenly became very occupied with pieces of toasts. Not that they didn't bring their attention. It was just that choosing toast didn't need that much of it.

'I'm not taking responsibility for what he does.' said the boy quickly, licking off his dirtied hand without any kind of shame – it was food and if he was allowed to eat, he didn't waste any part of it. Temari blushed. She was the one who was supposed to do that. But she didn't want to. She knew what such calls meant and that if one needed, then it mean he needed to get them. But Gaara, as rarely he did that, once he got stubborn, he couldn't be taken away from what he thought up to do. But she had to do something. Daddy will be mad if he will learn that Gaara brought them shame by not letting Mr. Uzumaki answer his calls.

'If Naruto's dad needs to answer, then he needs to.' she said quickly, looking at the younger of her brothers. Gaara looked back at her from the glass, but quickly reverted to looking at the milk. He was determined to drink it all in one go, so mommy would be happy and besides, he liked the warmth and the taste 'So let him get up if the phone calls.' Gaara drank. When he finally stood the glass on the table with a little huff, he glanced at her. Then he slowly leaned back more, laying on Minato with all his body, even when all he wanted was to reach for piece of reddish square.

'He is mine to sit and you can't tell me what to do with him. I was first.'

Minato started laughing and without being able to help himself, he gave the redhead a gentle squeeze. Gaara really was too cute for his own good. All of them were.

'No… he is mine, I was there before any of you.' Naruto said seriously, staring at his friend with a frown as he reached for a new toast. He waited until he was done smearing strawberry on it and took a bite of it, looking very concentrated. '…but you are my best friend, so I will share you with him when I'm not using him.'

'How generous.' Minato joked, though Naruto nodded very seriously in answer. '…aren't you hungry, Gaara?'

'No.' said Gaara, turning his eyes toward the plate, but not moving. If they were told they could eat, there was no need to cry so he could do what he needed to do. 'You won't move?'

Minato loosened his hold. 'You want to sit down on your own?'

He redhead looked at him and then slowly hunched down, holding onto his teddy with uncheerful face.

'Your daddy doesn't like me.' he said finally looking at Naruto and playing with his teddy's ears. 'So you can have him back. Mine doesn't ask me to sit down on my own when he takes me up.' he said, hopping down from Minato's lap and coming to an empty chair 'If he doesn't want me there, he doesn't hold me.' He added, propping his toy on the table and climbing up the chair. Then he shot Minato an offended glance and reached out for a piece of toast. It was more reddish. He liked that one better.

Naruto looked surprised.

'Daddy, why don`t you like Gaara?'

'Of course I like Gaara!' Minato said, expression confused. 'I thought he asked me to move away...?'

'My daddy likes you.' Naruto told the redhead. 'But I like you more. I`m really glad you are not dead.' he added, patting his head.

The redhead slowly bit onto the piece of toast, tasting the food. Yummy. He never ate something like that. It didn't taste as sweet as he thought it would. Then he looked back at the blonds – looking back and forth between them. Then, without taking the toast from his mouth, he hopped down the chair, along with his plush. Kankuro and Temari watched this in silence. That kid always had some strange ideas. He came closer to the seat, opening his plush up, and started rummaging in it. Then he slowly took out a big fat monster that looked like if it was on a murdering rage. And he frowned. No. He really liked raccoonie. He let go of it and slowly took out the second figure. Foxie. There.

'I like you too.' he said, taking the food from between his lips for a moment and placing the figure before Naruto's plate. Then he got back to Minato and stared at him through the piece of toast he put there and didn't take out from his mouth because he was zipping up the toy.'Fowwy I fowh yoo fow fayf meh' he said finally and put the teddy on his lap 'Wuh I fayh yoo foo.' (Sorry, I thought you don't like me, but I like you too). Naruto's daddy may be acting a little strange but he was an adult and all adults were a little lost on this world. For example, sometimes he didn't know such things as how to eat bitter pills in that age. He could take care of him for the time being and teddy could guard him from getting up.

Once he made sure the toy was well he circled the table and without second thought he simply sat on the edge of it, just enough to not push the blond down, but sit on it himself. Then he continued on eating his toast, leaning lightly against Naruto's side.

'Whaa, for me?' Naruto grabbed the red thing, turning it around in wonder. 'It's a fox! With nine tails!' How could two kids arrive to the conclusion that skinned-alive rabbit-like thing looked even remotely like a fox, he wouldn't know… But a lot of studies said kids were sensible at different levels of subconsciousness and something about the disturbing clay figure might have looked like a fox… Like… the whites of the eyes. That were red, by the way. 'Daddy, daddy, didn't you have a name for nine tailed foxes?'

'Kyuubi.' he said, adjusting the toy on his lap and taking a sip of the tea he had left there a while ago. It was cold by now, but he liked it anyway, so he drank it without thinking of making himself some new one.

'It's name's Kyuubi,' the blond boy informed the redhead next to him, throwing an arm around him to give the shorter boy a gentle squeeze. 'Thank you Gaara!'

Minato smiled, leaning on the table. Really, these kids were too cute.

Gaara answered back with something between 'mhhh' and a 'woo' with his food between his teeth and a glance he tossed the blond. Naruto was his best friend already so why could he not give it to him? It was as normal as the fact that he was here. Kankuro and Temari looked with curiosity at the thing, that was named as 'hare' by Temari and 'bunko' by Kankuro as they decided it reminds some sort of a strangely colored alien – because no earthly fox or rabbit would look like that – and ate till the whole plate was clean, along with cups. Then Kankuro decided that it would be good to show the kids how real puppet would behave and chased after them with his Kuroari while Temari decided to stay in kitchen and do the 'girly' stuff.

Like washing the dishes four times longer than it would take any average adult.

The time was not boring for them even then. At first Naruto showed the boys his plants and even let them water it, though not much as Kankuro was first to flood the half of the room (but as it was sunny, they all decided to not inform Minato about this as it was obvious that the water would dry off by itself), then the blond took out the twister. At first it seemed to be pretty hard, especially for Gaara who couldn't reach much of the dots and constantly fell on his face. Kankuro was about to call it off as 'boring' when finally Temari came from her cleaning the dishes and ruled the game, making it a quick work for competition between her and Kankuro (as Gaara and Naruto mostly played for fun).

After that they watered the plants some more because Temari wanted to see it too (flooding even more of the floor but no harm done, the sun was still shining) and played hide and seek until it came out that Naruto is just not findable in his own house as he knew the best hidings. After exhaustion and eating a very unhealthy lunch (which made the siblings hesitate much as daddy always said that pizza is for bad kids) they decided to watch a movie. And it was quite a funny movie – about green guy who decided to steal Christmas.

At least Kankuro liked him much and Temari decided that adventure's of Whose are worth seeing after trying to make them all watch some more girly stuff (but 'Titanic' was, as they got to know, sad, so they decided it was not the best for Gaara who had to stay happy and sound for the time of healing). But the redhead didn't think so. After first few minutes, where the Grinch came out of the screen he began to squirm. Then he started talking through the voices to his teddy, trying to console him that Grinch is not that scary but after some moment he just starred at the screen with wide eyes.

But when the green Grinch started making his evil plan, he just couldn't take it anymore. What was that bad boy doing?... He wanted to steal the Christmas!... How will her able to get presents or spend time with mommy if there will be no Christmas?... He tried to convince the green guy to not do this, but when it all came in vain he just hopped down the sofa and ran away from the screen crying. And he ran until he found Minato, glued to other big screen while searching through some papers and stuck himself to his leg, sobbing. 'He stole it all!...' he choked out, hugging close to him. No presents!... No special food!... No mommy!...

'Aaaan!...'

But then he heard how Kankuro and Temari started shouting from other room for him to come back as some good part was starting and he looked back at it, indecisively, then at Minato, then at the door… He really, really wanted to see what was happening, but mister Grinch was so, so scary!... He looked at the big blond like If he was an answer for all his troubles and glued himself to him, pulling him with himself with a whimper. There was no way he was coming back there alone. No way on the world. Even not for another glass of milk.

Minato had tried to talk the little girl into letting him do the dishes, but she had insisted so much that he had had no choice but to let her (she was quite a stubborn little thing, especially for a girl that wasn't ten yet…) but he had the feeling she was probably feeling shy because of what had happened at breakfast, so he finally gave in and spent a few moments talking, until his phone began to ring. He reached on top of the refrigerator for it, and then spent about two hours talking with his associate while the kids played around. At some point he nearly tripped in a very wet footprint, which lead him to the veranda, where Naruto kept his assortment of plants. It had started about the time they had moved in and he was still looking around for an appropriate place to leave his baby

The little blond finally told him he wanted to have a puppy. Now, Minato didn't have a problem with animals (he was actually always getting complaints from neighbors for feeding strays in his old house) but a puppy and a little kid really were too much responsibility at a moment of his life he had enough problems with. Not only would he have to worry about the dog getting sick and contagion something to his son, but also worry endlessly about accidentally forgetting to feed it. Minato didn't mean to be as distracted as he was, but he spent too much of his time in his own little world and often had very realistic dreams.

So more than once he had woken up himself and his son (and before that, his wife) because he was sure the alarm had sounded and it was still 3 A.M.; he dreamt he had prepared something he wanted to cook and then found out he hadn't, he dreamt he had written something and then not only did he find he hadn't, he also had forgotten what he had written about… Minato was terrified he'd forget to feed or so something life-maintaining to the puppy and accidentally kill it. That really would be too much for him to handle; so he had stuck out a deal with his son:

Naruto would get a Chia pet. When the Chia pet died (of natural causes) he could get a fish. When the fish died (of natural causes) he could get a hamster. When the hamster died (of natural causes), then he could get a puppy. He had made math's, that gave him some good four years at least until the actual moment of worrying about a puppy. By then Naruto would be at least nine, and more able to at least remind him of anything he might be forgetting about the dog. Either way, the blond still couldn't wrap his mind about what kind of fish did he want to get (as Minato had openly refused to get him a piranha – really, he barely let his son eat meat, did he really expect him to buy a fish that could eat fingers…?) so the idea was in standby.

Except for the plants. Naruto had turned out to have quite the green thumb (and he didn't know where that came from, as neither Kushina or him had been able to keep so much as a lone cacti alive) and soon enough the blond had started using empty coffee jars and anything else he could get his hands on to get more plants growing. One of his neighbors sometimes gave him little handfuls of seeds when they passed by, as his little girl went to kinder with Naruto, so the veranda was usually filled to the brim with flowers and plants that, as far as he could tell, sprouted overnight.

So, he had spent a nice portion of the talk cleaning the gutter of dried leaves, eliminating the inch deep water, some other fifteen minutes cleaning the floors half heartedly with a rag (had he mentioned he loved linoleum? Because he loved linoleum) and then moved his laptop to the kitchen to let the kids watch TV in his room. He had been deep into the conversation when Gaara had appeared out of nowhere to ling to him.

'Gaara-kun?'

'He stole it all!...' he choked out, hugging close to him. No presents!... No special food!... No mommy!... 'Aaaan!...'

'Gaara!' muttering something about calling him the next day, he turned to the little redhead and hugged him lightly. 'What happened? Does your head hurt?'

Gaara turned to him and hugged him with all his might just to get some body contact as it was always nice, whether he needed it or not. He stayed like that for a minute or two, only sniffing and listening to some shouting and then slowly turned to the blond, looking at him directly in the eye.

'Teddy says he is afraid to come back there alone.' he muttered, showing the plush between them and clung to the man while tossing glances through his shoulder toward the room where movie was played out 'The big green man stole it all!...'

Minato was surprised about how strongly the boy clang to him, something he had noticed before. Gaara seemed to like to cling to his son, but he hadn't thought about it much…

'Did he…?' The big green man seemed to fit the description of the movie the kids were watching, some of the Dr. Seuss ones he owned. Naru had never though it to be scary, but then again, his son rarely found anything scary. 'Don't worry, I'm sure things will turn out right in the end.' he said, picking the little boy up and walking with him out of the living room, giving the clock in the wall a look as he passed it. 'Why don't we get some fruit for you and teddy and Naru and your siblings? You guys must be hungry after playing so much, and then we cans see how the movie end with a happy ending?'

Gaara nodded, sticking to the neck of the blond like a piece of modeling clay and stayed like that until they reached the kitchen. It was nice and warm when someone held you so he liked being held and when he was – he just liked being held much. He also liked to hold things, but teddy was never as responsive as he wanted him to be and Naruto seemed to be too absorbed in a movie to push him like that. He breathed into the scent.

He liked the smell of Naruto's dad, even if it was nothing like his dad, whose smell was the best on the world, because it was daddy's. When the fridge got opened, he snuggled up closer, but quickly stuck his head out as he saw the object on the highest shelf. He almost forgot!... Mommy said to drink enough of that and he didn't drink much of it.

'Can I have some milk?' he asked, pointing at the white carton with irregular black splotches '…and can teddy too?' He didn't like milk that much. But he knew that there was no milk at home. And maybe if he drank enough he wouldn't have to take the pills. Pills were not that yummy after all.

Again with the clinging… Was it normal for a kid that age to be that affectionate? Not that he had anything against it, he found Gaara to be almost too cute with that bright red head and huge green eyes, but still… He picked a few bananas, apples and peaches and piled them on the sink to give them a wash, still holding the kid to his side as he ran the water and rubbed the peel of the fruit. What hour had the boy's father told him he had to take the medicine…? He had already had another dose a little after lunch, where there had almost been a fight between the kids as Gaara utterly refused to swallow the thing and Naruto had quite literally burst into tears to convince him. Nope, still they had some three hours to go.

Gaara looked at him, then at the milk. Temari had her milk almost right away, they had to wait for it some time. He leaned on the blond, looking at him, pondering. It would be good to have it quick, but Kankuro said that he couldn't have it warm if he had it cold. And if he had it warm he will have to wait for it and that means another few minutes of hugging.

'Warm.' he said tossing a glance at the carton like if it understood what he wanted to tell about it 'And teddy too, warm.'

'Sure thing.' he said, pulling the carton out and placing it to heat while he finished with the fruit and put it in a bowl with some napkins. Five minutes later Minato came into the room the other kids were in, leaving the bowl in between them.

'Here, have a snack.' he informed, just to be sure they would get it without a problem this time to avoid more scenes like that of breakfast. Naruto looked around until he spotted the redhead and just smiled at him, transferring his attention again to the movie. He had been about to go look for where Gaara had gone, as he was taking too long to have just gone to the bathroom. Gaara smiled back at him, but he didn't unglue himself from the blond, looking at him pleadingly. He wasn't going back to his room, right? He was not leaving them here to watch this scary green guy alone, right? Kankuro looked at the bowl like if it contained gold and slowly reached out, not knowing what to take. He liked fruits very much, but besides some apples their father always brought home when he forgot to bring anything else he didn't get much. And he liked fruits. Plums, pears, oranges – whole bunch of them. And bananas too… He reached out for a yellow fruit just to have his hands slapped away by Temari.

'Ow!' what was she doing? Temari sent him a glare then turned to Minato with a frown.

'Daddy doesn't let us eat while watching TV.' she said harshly. Why was the blond breaking all the rules their daddy made? That seemed to be suspicious. And what if daddy will go mad at them for not obeying them when he was not seeing? Rules were to be looked up to, not to be broken every time the ruler was not looking…

'Dad doesn't let us eat at all.' said Kankuro with a pout, holding onto his hurt hand, but keeping himself away from the bowl 'I want a banana, Temari.'

'And what if daddy will find out? Have you thought about it?'

'I'm not gonna tell, I'm not like that!'

'But he is.' she answered, pointing with her eyes at Gaara. Gaara just sat with Minato, not even paying attention to his siblings and watching the movie with wide eyes. Kankuro glared at him then pouted even more, sending the longing gaze toward the bowl but sitting further away from it. Sisters. He never said he wanted one.

'Kids.' Minato said, as he lit the bedside lamp and looked around a drawer for a pen and paper 'Your dad told me to take care of you and that means keeping you fed. You can eat while you watch the movie while here, and if you have any problems, I'll talk with your dad- Gaara?' he had leaned down to get the kid to sit next to his son, but there was a problem with the plan… Gaara had his arms still firmly wrapped around his neck.

'See? Let's eat.' said Kankuro and got a hold on the banana he saw before, peeling it off quickly. Temari looked at the blond then at the bowl seeming to be thinking if anyone wouldn't bite her or back off their words. Finally, she reached for a pear, still looking at Minato, clearly blaming him for everything with her eyes as she bit on the fruit. But soon, she forgot about him as the screen was much more interesting than bended over blond father of a blond.

'Muh?' asked Gaara not for one tearing his eyes from the TV or even loosening his grip for a moment. Now that the Grinch had problems with his sleight the movie was much more interesting than before.

'Is... everything okay?' he had his hands under the redhead`s arms, and was trying to put him on the floor. Without any sort of success. Gaara looked up at him, eyeing his palms as he tried to remove his hands, not understanding.

'You're here so it's okay.'

Minato blinked. 'Then... don`t you want to sit with your siblings...?'

'I always sit with my siblings.' said Gaara like if it was the most obvious answer on the world then he frowned with determination, practicing a new expression he learned not so long ago but so far used only when kids were really, really bad to him. It usually worked some. He didn't understand why they were always shouting something like

'Look out, look out, it's his Death glare no. 1!' or something like that, but as long as it worked it was fine with him 'Now I want with you.'

Minato stared down at the kid in his arms- who suddenly, for some reason, decided to turn into a redder-haired version of his father mid-sneer. Only cuter. Possibly because of the green eyes and bite-size. Either way, it made Minato feel more like hugging him than feeling intimidated. With a resigned sigh, the older blond got up and lit up one of the bedside lamps, rummaging through it for pen and paper, when he accidentally touched something he hadn't expected to find.

'Hey, Naru, look, I found my glasses!' He turned to his son with a happy smile, holding the aforementioned spectacles.

'That's great, daddy! Which ones?'

'Ah… the ones without borders.'

'Great!' Naruto said, taking banana and leaning conspiratorially to the older kids. 'Dad's always missing his glasses, and then we never find them again. You guys must have brought luck.'

Kankuro and Temari looked at Naruto, then at the other blonde. Really? What a shame. Dad only had one pair of glasses but he never ever lost them. Or used them, for that matter. So he probably didn't lose them because he didn't use them…

'We can help in searching if there's something to find.' said Kankuro around the mouthful of second banana 'It's not that hard to find pair of glasses.'

'Uhuh.' agreed Temari, but only halfheartedly as the movie was still on and she was skeptic about the place – there were so many things she doubted that glasses could be so easily findable. But he would help if it came to searching.

Minato sat next to the kids in the floor, holding the redhead on his lap with a happy smile as he cleaned his glasses and started writing something in a notepad he was propping up with his leg. Naruto stared at the redhead, who was contentedly sitting in between his father's legs and then casually leaned down so he was resting with his head on one of Minato's legs. After a few moments, however, he moved further so he was lying with his head on Gaara's lap and most of his body thrown over his father's legs. There. Now Gaara wasn't overusing his dad and he wouldn't feel alone.

Gaara looked down at Naruto and patted him on the head, then leaned on Minato just to squeal when the sleight started falling down. What would happen to poor Whos if their presents would be destroyed?... No Christmas!... He hugged his teddy a little more tighter.

He blond held up two fingers.

'Two pairs. The blue ones and the green ones are still missing. But I already looked everywhere for them. I think he must have forgotten them at some store…' he paused at the patting, smiling up to his friend and reaching up to carefully pat him back on his head. 'Don't worry, this movie is from before I was born, so everything must have come out all right.'

They all nodded, absorbing the information. Sure, if that was so, then sure, it had to end all right. But they watched it till the end. Just in case if suddenly the movie decided to make a change on its own. And it seemed Naruto was right. Who would suspect?

As soon as the movie ended, everyone started asking to see another, but they had already watched what felt like too much TV for a day, and Minato was rather strict on how much time Naruto could sit in front of it. Maybe they could play some video games later. Disappointed, Naruto and the Sabakus went to the blond's room and spent a while drawing, after which his son suddenly remembered he had audio books (another of the greatest inventions of the human race, besides linoleum).

He put a CD on the stereo while the four sat around a book and passed the pages when Temari told them to move it, as she was the only one who read fast enough to keep with the soothing voice coming from the speakers. At some point while he was again in the phone, Gaara brought him to the living and tried to climb up him again, though this time it seemed spurred by him being sleepy and wanting to held than anything else, so Minato was quick to comply, even as he continued the chat. He was rather used to background noise and it didn't bother him much.

And Gaara slept on his arm only to wake up after a few minutes and look at him with a frown, eyeing the phone receiver with displeasure. But it was solved after a few moments later as he just curled into Minato's arm more and, having his ears covered, he slept like a dead person. Soon, Kankuro followed. It was not that he was used to such naps, but soothing voice of the audio book made him more lulled up than interested so his eyes closed by themselves. Temari, being older than two of her brothers and being able to keep up with the book, just kept reading until the tape hasn't ended.

By the time the book was done, Naruto came close to examine the sleeping redhead and announce that Kankuro had fallen asleep as well. Minato nodded in agreement and finished the call some minutes later. Carefully, he moved the redhead to his own room, leaving him more or less in the middle and carefully arranged the spare pillows around to prevent accidents, even though Gaara was far from being a baby, then came back and picked Kankuro, moving him to rest next to his brother.

Naruto was waiting behind him with a quilt he had taken off his own bed (quite surely messing it up without any hope of salvation beyond making it up from zero again) and after covering the pair, he left the door only half closed so they would have some light in case either woke up before time. 'What about you, Temari-chan?' he asked the girl, patting her on the head. 'Do you want to take a nap too?'

Temari shook her head, looking up at the man with curiosity. How could he think like that? She was much older than those two! Too much to need a nap.

'I'm not a baybe.' she said looking at both of the blonds. 'I don't need to sleep so much.'

She looked around, seeing yet again the decorations on walls and furniture. Sure, it was all nice, but she didn't quite know what could she do in it – the movies has been called off and she just ended reading a book and the plants were watered and playing twister only with Naruto sounded boring… And, as oddly as it sounded, she didn't feel hungry enough to ask for food (not that she would anyway). She looked up at the blond.

'Why are you blonde?'

Minato seemed to be slightly taken back by the question.

'I... suppose my father must have been blond.' he answered, walking to Naruto's room and starting to make the (just as expected) brutalized bed. Temari frowned lightly but followed Minato without a word and stood at the doors, looking at him doing the bed.

'You shouldn't be blonde.'

'But then how would *I* be blond?' Naruto asked, holding up his pillow and waiting for his dad to need it. 'My mommy's hair was red, I would look real bad with red hair.'

Minato shook his head, smiling absently. 'Why shouldn't I be blond?'

'Red looks good on my daddy.' said Temari, turning to Naruto and coming closer to take another pillow and hold it the same way. Daddy never liked when she was around trying to help, but it was mostly because he said he was doing it 'quicker' without her 'interrupting him'. But here blond was doing it very slowly so she didn't seem to find the reason to why not to do it

'And if it looks good on daddy then it looks good on everyone because daddy is very handsome.' she frowned a bit, feeling that the reasoning was not very well said, but to her it made sense – daddy was handsome after all and if daddy was handsome then anyone looking a little like daddy would look handsome too. Or pretty. So why not Naruto. 'And you shouldn't be blonde because blonde is evil. And you're not evil at all.' she added, turning to Minato 'All blonde people are evil.'

'Oh…?' Minato stopped to stare at the girl in confusion for a moment, then continue with his work. 'Well, thank you Temari-chan, but I can't help being blond. And Naru would look awful if he got his mother's hair- her hair wasn't red like your dad or even Gaara's. Hers was more like dark raspberry ice cream.' he smiled a bit at that. 'People always thought she dyed it that way… Why do you think all blondes are evil…?'

Wasn't her own mother almost blonde…? Naruto was on his library, looking around through his books in a way that Minato had no intention of picking up after. Temari looked at the older man with confusion, trying to imagine such color, but in vain. All she saw was her father's red so it seemed to be all right to her.

'She must've been a beautiful mother.' she said, giving the blond a pillow and searched for Naruto to gaze at him. The way he searched through the books seemed to indicate he had something interesting in them 'And blonde's are evil, because… because…' she stopped, then shrugged. Who knew why blondes were evil. 'They just are.'

'We must be an exception to the rule, then… I would like to think I'm a good person, and my trained chinchilla is also-'

'Look, look!' Naruto grabbed the girl by the arm and shook her almost roughly, holding a photography.

'Naruto, Temari-chan is a lady, treat her respectfully-' The older man said without even to turn around and check what the little blond was doing. His son pouted, immediately releasing the girl, but then smiled again, showing her the photo. 'This is my mommy~'

In the picture there was a young woman with messy red hair, the mass of it seeming to have more of a pinkish hue than orange or auburn. She was wearing a very, large shirt with what seemed to be some sort of logotype that the camera had conveniently cut, and she was giving the 'peace' symbol as she clung to a somewhat poutish younger Minato. The background indicated it was somewhere in the tourist section of Whirlpool village.

'No, mommy is an exception.' said Temari as she took the photo in her hands and looked at it with a concentration on her face. The pair really looked beautiful – they clashed but they also made a nice completion. Though to Temari they looked more like a pair of friends than lovers – but she was sure that she wouldn't be all kissy-kissy with any boy also, kissing was just yucky. But adults were different and liked to do that stuff. But then… She looked to be a funny person though.

'You have a nice mommy.' she said, giving the photo back to Naruto 'Where is she now?'

'Ah, she is an angel.'

'Okay, all done.' Said Minato, puffing up the last pillow 'Are you hungry, Temari? I was just going to make some pasta with cheese.'

Temari looked at the ceiling like if she could spot anything there. An angel? She didn't think that angels could exist just like that. She only heard that people who died went to heaven. Maybe she was watching over her mommy? But how did she become an angel? Maybe she didn't die? She never heard of angels dying. But how come she left them to become an angel?

She was about to ask that when Minato turned to her with questions. She frowned. Why was this blond so strange? Maybe that's how his evilness showing?

'I'm not hungry.' she said and looked at the room where her brothers slept 'But they probably would eat it. They eat everything like little babies…' she stopped for a moment to wonder if daddy wouldn't want to eat anything, but since he never did then he probably wouldn't want to eat it now. So she didn't speak in his name.

'I know, but tomato soup takes a little over an hour to get done.' and more if kids were helping, as he knew that at least his son would want to. He looked at the clock, thinking a bit about the time. It was almost seven in the afternoon and not a peep from the kid's father… And as far as his numerous part times jobs had taken him, one usually only worked part time on Saturdays. He suddenly remembered the comment the kids had made on breakfast regarding their father.

'Temari-chan… ' he asked, his eyes still set on the clock. 'Do you think your father would be mad at me if we invited him to eat…?'

Temari looked at the clock also, but since it was nothing interesting, she got back to looking at Minato.

'Daddy doesn't eat at all because he is an adult.' she said proudly, holding her hands on her little hips 'He probably doesn't like eating at all.'

The older blond, smiled at her nervously. '…could you give him a call and ask him if he would like to come over?'

Temari looked back, looking at him like if he were an idiot. Because really, why was the blond asking that? Daddy would come anyway so couldn't he do that when daddy would already be there? If he would call everyone because of anything soon his phone would stop working too. But maybe he wanted to have it not working.

'Okay.' she said, shrugging at him and ran to the phone that was left somewhere in the canopy 'But don't say I didn't tell you.'


	8. 8: Medicine

Sabaku Daichi worked hard. He came to the work just in the nick of time before his boss and found his seat just right when the man was entering the room. That seemed to be a saving move as he just was unnoticed – because the empty chair was much more noticeable than many employers sitting behind the same desks in the whole place. Then he worked hard. At first he didn't mean to – actually, he tried to find Yura just to make sure he took his presentation and actually get to know how it went, but he couldn't find him. He worked in silence for two hours, closing the unclosed and taking care of things he should've taken care days ago, but couldn't. Then the urge to see the other man just grew too big. So he went out to drink a coffee.

And, just as he thought, he met Yura there. Or rather – tried to meet as the man was obviously avoiding him and trying to make his way out of his attention every time he spotted him. After twenty minutes of unsuccessful approach he just decided to corner him in the most appropriate place in the whole building once he got occasion and it seemed to be a good move. After another hour he saw the man in bathroom, having a nice, restful peeing like every man in the world. So he attacked.

'Good morning, Yura.' he muttered, startling the other man so much he jumped. Probably making a stain on his pants which was shameful and unacceptable but he didn't seem to be aware of that yet. 'How nice to see you in this place again.'

He opened his zip and took the matter of his own need like if the talk was no more no less but about weather and slowly zipped up his pants again. Yura was pale as white flag. So he took out a gun and pulled on the trigger, aiming at the centre of the head.

'How was the presentation?'

And quite successfully at that - headshot, checkmate. Yura seemed to be moved by his words almost like if he was about to kill him. He frowned. It couldn't really be that bad. He checked it many times and everything, read even with a dull and shaky voice was correct and presented a thing every company was searching for. Was it really so stressing to declare such a great presenta-

'I got promoted.'

Daichi smiled at the mirror, washing his hands. The water was warm against the palms, nice, wet…

'Really, that's great.' he said the usual formula at that and closed the sink, turning back to the man 'You're such a lucky guy in this hard time. And how about my presen-'

He stopped, looking at the man in the middle of the whisking his hands of the water as there was no towel and felt how cold was the air against the just warmed, damp hands. Yura looked at him pale as ghost.

'I got promoted. I'm sorry.' said the other man, looking at him, Daichi felt the cold seeping through his skin to his bones.

'You stole it.' he whispered through half of disbelieving smile, looking at the man with widened eyes. It couldn't be. His good – maybe not best, no, but good – friend… 'You stole my presentation.'

'No, I didn't.' said the man, hardening his gaze and coming to the sinks to wash his hands also. He did have the stain on his pants 'You gave it to me, remember? You said it's mine once you decided before running off to who knows where… so I took the responsibility of not knowing what I was doing. Believe me, I thought it would be just average or it wouldn't even bring me any luck to my opinion…'

Yura tossed him a glance, then got back to soaping his hands. Daichi opened his mouth to protest, but closed them by his hands, starring at the floor. He did… he remembered saying something like that… He gave it off because he knew he wouldn't be able to announce it anyway… but he didn't know… he didn't expect…

'Believe me, Daichi, if I knew what are you giving me, I wouldn't agree. I know how you need the money. I mean – I'm in bad situation too, but I live with my girlfriend and she has a job too. As shameful as it is, at least I have something to eat.' said the man. Daichi slowly turned his gaze at him, still barely understanding what was going on. Something unfair… no… it was not how it was supposed to be… but he made it that way… why… why…

'And what about me?...' he asked ghastly, slowly taking his hand from his mouth to lean on the wall because he felt his legs were not giving him enough of support anymore.

'Oh, the boss said…' the other man hesitated for a moment, wiping of his hands, then threw out the paper tissue he got out from his pocket a moment before '…the boss read off the list of the workers at risk of being fired… you're on it.' Daichi looked at him.

'What?'

'Yes… I'm sorry, man. I wish I could do something, but you know how it is. Hard times.' said Yura, patting him on the shoulder and going out of the bathroom, despite the stained pants 'I'm sorry.'

Daichi didn't react. What… what's happened?

He slowly unwinded the sleeves of his shirt and washed the hands again in slow, turtle moves, washing his face and going with his hands through his red hair, making it stand out at the end.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' he muttered, looking at the mirror. He had bags under the eyes and sickly pale skin '… if you were really sorry you wouldn't accept this, you son of a…'

He felt flicker of an anger, but didn't have strength to react to it. Instead he just turned the sink off and moved out of the bathroom with sluggish steps, retouching his tie like if it mattered at all how he looked like after his coffee break and somehow he made it to his desk where he sat, staring at the surface of it with empty gaze. Promotion… he just gave off a promotion…

'Sorry? You're not sorry at all…' he muttered, hiding his head in his hands and gritting his teeth till they hurt him. Promotion… dear gods, he gave off promotion…

'…it's me who is sorry… so unbelievably sorry.'

He felt like shaking on his chair forward and backward. What was promotion? It meant better salary, money, food, clothes, bills, meds, kids, happy smiles, happiness, luck, better life…

…and he gave it off because he had to run off. To the hospital. To Gaara. Who was okay under Minato's care. And he didn't have to do it at all.

He gritted his teeth even harder. Gods, what has he done!...

'Daichi, phone.' he heard near him. He looked back at Yura who seemed to toss him a half-worried, half-guilty glance and nodded to him absent mindedly. How could he even look his kids in the face now?... How could he go back home to them?... Such a shame… if anything, he just should take a rope and go at the bridge where those nice trees with thin branches grew, tie the rope on one of it, wind it around his neck and take a long, nice jump just to-

'Daddy!' He blinked, shaking off from the vision of the deep dark river under him. Wait… who?

'Temari?' he asked, feeling how the alarm in his head started to ring with three volumes too loud 'What's happened? Is Gaara hurt again Something has happened to Kankuro?'

'No! No. Not at all. Daddyyy, you know Naruto's dad wouldn't let it happen!' was the gigglish answer. He leaned on the chair with a sigh, feeling the migraine coming. Such a bad day…

'What is it, then?...' he asked, feeling that if anything, someone was watching him now and if he knew his luck, it was probably boss. He didn't dare to look around to check as it would make him look more suspicious than anything.

'It's Naruto's dad.' he heard. Great. So something has happened after all? What did the blond want from him? 'He asks if you can come over for dinner.'

'Dinner… ?' he muttered with dull voice. Dinner? Now? He didn't feel like eating at all. More, he just felt too weak to even drive back to the blond's house and look the kids in the eye. Maybe he should just run away now, leaving them there… the blond would take care of them, feed them and all… he had money, much money, probably won a lottery or something… his kids wouldn't have to be ashamed… Temari could even call him 'daddy' as she was also blonde…

'Daddy?'

'Ah… um.' he said, breaking out from the train of thoughts 'Uhuh, yes, of course… tell Mr. Uzumaki I will come, only I have to get out of the work…' his excuse of a work.

'Really? That's great! I will tell him. Thanks daddy, I miss you!'

'I miss you too, princess.' he muttered tiredly to the click of the phone. His daughter still had to learn that you didn't hang off the phone once you said 'byes' without listening to answer from other side. They all had so many things to learn about… He looked at the clock. Maybe after two hours.

'A-hem.'

He looked to the side, noticing his boss looking at him with disapproving glare. He nodded to him and took out another piece of paper, trying to concentrate. Okay, maybe three… After four and a half hour he finally drove out from the parking and steered himself to the known path. For his kids. It took him only thirty minutes to get there as streets were vaguely empty and thanks gods for that – he was so tired he was not really able to concentrate on what he was doing besides automatic moves. Once he stood before the known door- he actually leaned on the bell with all his body. Tomorrow was… Sunday… good…

'Daddy!'

…and of course, who was first to glue to his legs? Gaara, of course. Usually it was easy to ignore such a sticker, but as it changed into three kids, he just couldn't move his legs in.

'Evening, kids,' he said, patting Kankuro on the head, ignoring the whine from the other boy and the girl. 'Ready to move out?'

'But daddy… didn't you say you would want to eat the dinner?'

'What, I did?...' he looked with dimmed eyes at the blond. 'Oh, right. I did. But it's so late, I won't be troubling you…'

'That would be no problem at all, Daichi-san, it's Sunday tomorrow.' Minato said, giving the redhead a rather disturbed-looking once over. 'And you look like if you could use some dinner...'

And coffee. The man looked like if he could do with about kiddy's pool worth of it. When Temari had called, it had been a little after five in the afternoon, and he had been feeling a little apprehensive about inviting the man to his house, but the girl's comment about the man not eating, as well as certain things Gaara had said on his other visits had him worried about the man's health. It was obvious he didn't starve his kids, even though they were hungry. Compared to him, they looked perfectly well… And he knew what starving was.

Less than ten years ago, Kushina and him had just been barely above being beggars simply because the two of them were too proud for it. He remembered living in rented common rooms with other teenagers as poor as he and Kushina were (when they could afford a roof, that is) where you always had your stuff permanently stolen and he slept curled around her in fright of something happening… If they barely could afford rent, food was a permanent issue, and they usually lived of what they could scrape off Kushina's waitress job (literally, scrape the leftovers from the diner) and his numerous and short lived attempts at getting permanent job that he just wasn't in a position to achieve.

Back then they had mostly lived of cup ramen, instant ramen and more ramen (as it was pretty much the only thing that fitted their budget and was easy to keep close by to avoid having it taken by grabby roomies) and the servings were religiously split, even though he would have liked to give almost all of it to Kushina… if she would only have it. But discussions only ever lead to her not eating, so he had resigned himself to it. It was amazing how much the situation had changed in so little time. And he'd give it all back if he could just return to that time where he had her with him.

Some days he didn't even know how he managed to get out of bed and live another day. As answer, he realized his main reason was already on the kitchen and trying to put the soup back on the fire when he knew he was prohibited from touching the stoves, and so he barely had time to drag the man inside and close the door behind him before running off to make sure the little blond didn't burn himself while he blinked. He returned a moment later with the struggling kid safely kept under an arm, as if he were some piece of luggage.

'Sorry about that… Please sit down.'

'Okay, but you don't have to do that, really, I'll just pack my kids and go – oh, Gaara, shut up already!' The red haired kid immediately hushed down his whine, mostly because of the sharpness of the tone that was used, but he still let out a small tone that was now more teary than before. Kankuro and Temari almost in an instance let go of his legs, backing away at such words as they knew that there were no touchy-feely times with him as he was in such mood – but his youngest never seemed to grasp on his moods just like he wanted to.

Or maybe he just didn't want to. He looked at him as he hugged his teddy, looking at him with teary eyes and turned to Minato.

'No, really, I think we will go. I still have some… things… to think about.' he muttered, trying to look serious as the redhead started pulling on his hand just when he stopped paying him attention 'I had a tiring day, I think that it wouldn't be good if I fell asleep in the middle of eating, hahaha- oh, would you stop!' He tore away his hand from Gaara as the kid looked at him with pout 'What do you want!'

There was a pregnant silence as the kid just looked at him, then with a slow, almost tortoise move reached out his hands for him. Daichi felt like his head began to hurt. Gods…

'Gaara, you're too old for hugging. Stop acting like a baby, you're a grown up man.' Gaara still stood stubbornly, not letting his hands fall down, even if in his age that long probably was a little too much. But he still looked at him. Almost challenging. 'I said I won't hug you, stop that! I'm having important speech with Mr. Uzumaki, don't interrupt!'

The hands slowly fell down as Gaara sniffed and hiccupped, losing his glare to just let his eyes shine more and hugged himself to his leg, wetting the material in the process. He sighed.

'I'm sorry about that. We'd better get going.'

Minato flinched at the words more than any of the kids did.

'Um, no offence, but...' Naruto, who had stilled like a deer in the headlights at the sharpness of the tone slowly slid down his father's body without Minato seemed to be exactly aware of it, and cautiously approached the little redhead, staring at Daichi all the time like if he were some threatening animal that might strike if any sudden movement were made. When he was next to him, he took his hand and gave it a gentle tug. 'You look kind of… anemic.' Milk had more color than the guy did. And when he thought that he would be driving in a car with three kids.

'Please… Just a few minutes…?'

Daichi frowned, looking at the blond kid that tried to get Gaara away from him. He didn't react but kept an eye on him while he put a hand on the top of red hair, making Gaara glue to himself even more. Then he turned to look at the other man. It seemed he was very reluctant to let him go. There was probably more to the thing than it seemed to. Did his kids do something that he had to apologize for? Or more – pay for? He didn't even want to think about shame. But whatever it was, he probably had to hear it out. It seemed that the day was not only full of foul surprises but also still ongoing. He steered back his gaze into blue one.

'Okay… but only a few minutes.'

He could use a cup of someone else's coffee after all.

The little blond tensed at the look the older man gave him, but stubbornly refused to move or let go of his friend's hand. The man didn't really expect to let Gaara crying like that when he was being so mean to him, did he..? Minato smiled, looking rather relieved and left with a mutter. Of course, the few minutes was what it took him to have a plate of food in front of the redhead, as he had already fed the kids about two hours ago and was forced to eat with them by three glaring Sabakus, and throw the two slices that had been left from the pizza he had made at midday. Kids had turned out to be rather partial to the vegetarian brand, as the only one to complain about lack of meat on it had been his own kid.

The older kids were silent and still on the other side of the table, though they didn't look very worried, and Gaara just kept trying to call his father's attention in a way that had Minato wishing Naruto could have been more successful on removing the redhead. Sadly, Gaara hadn't allowed it and now his son was also on the other side of the table, sitting next to the girl and throwing somewhat worried glances at his friend.

'Sorry about that.' the older blond said, finally sitting on the other side of the table and ruffling his own kid's head absently. The man looked at his plate with switched off, absent gaze, like if he was not eyeing the food he was trying to obtain so many times, but some dull colorless piece of plastic. Soon he might not be able to even afford a piece of bread, much less such things as soups or sandwiches… That made his appetite go away.

Not that he felt any hunger – from not eating at all his insides just stopped craving anything edible, he felt just very empty and weak for most of the times. And any portion of water lied to his body quite well.

'Gaara, go away…' he muttered with annoyance, pushing the kid from his legs and showing him a seat near Temari ' I'm tired, go sit with Temari or something…'

'Mmmh!...' was all he heard in answer as Gaara tapped his feet in nervousness, trying to get close to him and yet trying to obey his order. After a moment he glued himself to his knees again. Daichi closed his eyes trying to tell himself that it was only an illusion that his head hurt more with every whine Gaara made 'Daddy!...'

'Gaara, I'm eating.' The pleading look.

'But teddy wants to go…'

'Take teddy with you.'

'But mommy says…'

Daichi tsked.

'Mommy says'. Parental necrophilia. Could this kid for once not talk about 'mommy'? Gaara sent him another pleading look, then, without any warnings, tried to crawl up on his lap. He pushed him away. 'Gaara, go sit with your siblings.'

'But…'

'Now.' The redhead looked at him, then at the floor with eyes so shiny they actually could reflect the floor. Then, without any warning, he hit him with his teddy and walked away.

Daichi stared after him, for a moment not understanding what's happened. Gaara never acted like that before.

Not for once.

Why you little brat!... He got up from the table and followed the kid to tear the toy from him. Gaara squealed, surprised, then followed him with hysteric scream that didn't cease even as he send him a cold glare.

'Teddy!' he screamed, reaching out for the toy as he let it lay near the plate. He felt the migraine coming. And yet, he didn't feel like reaching the levels of screaming his youngest made.

'You won't get it for what you did now.' he stated, making the kid look at him in the eye by sharp tug on his chin 'Now go back to your seat and calm down or you won't get it back ever again, do you understand?

'Nooo!...'

'If you will shut up, maybe I will give it back to you.' The redhead closed his mouth, hiccupping. Daichi let him go, letting him come back to his place, still sobbing quietly and resumed staring at the food on his plate. Really, didn't want anyone, much less Mr. Uzumaki to see such scenes, but he just couldn't help it. He told him he would go away now as he was tired. If the blond insisted he had to deal with also this. Having Gaara for such a long time of the day he had probably learned that the kid was hysterical.

Naruto immediately moved away from Temari and sat next to the redhead, boldly throwing an arm around his shoulders and giving the father a look as if daring him to say something about it. It was a good thing he did, too, because Minato had his while body tense and if his son had taken an extra second, he would have snatched the little boy up himself.

He couldn't believe that the other man had done… Gaara obviously needed attention and he wasn't just not giving it to him, he was being unnecessarily cruel to a little boy. Grown? He was only four, God, kids that age were barely something above babies! What kind of person was this father…? Just when Minato felt he had decided he was a bastard, the man did something or the kids said something that would make him change his mind…

'Please don't be too hard on him.' he said, his body rather tense. 'He woke up just a little while ago.'

Which actually had been several hours ago... but any excuse would do. Daichi barely tossed him a glance as he reached for spoon and tasted it. It was warm, it was tasty and only just when it fell into his stomach he felt how hungry he was. He gritted his teeth to not actually attack the plate and now wolf it down and munched on the pasta with perfectly slow motion. It felt almost too good.

'He had no right to do what he just did, sleepy or not.' he muttered as he swallowed the spoonful, having another ready with the soup on it 'That's why teddy stays with me.'

Gaara whined, but hugged himself to Naruto, not trying to protest louder. Temari and Kankuro sat, staring blankly at him or at the table. They learned their lessons some time ago and they knew that sooner or later even the most stubborn of stubborn ones – which was presented by Gaara himself – will learn their lessons too.

Minato frowned, looking like if he wanted to protest, but he didn't say anything. The only thing he would manage if he angered the man was to keep Gaara from coming back. His son seemed to have the situation under control, at least.

'Gaara, I managed to pass the second level in Sonic.' he was currently telling the redhead that was clinging at him, patting the top of his head gently. 'Come with me, I'll show you…' he gave the other kids a look, and after a few seconds nodded to himself. 'You can come too. I can't pass the part with the lava, so I need help.'

Technically they had already spent some time with the TV today, and Naruto knew it, but today was Saturday and he didn't want Gaara staying there and crying while his dad was mean to him.

'Come on, my dad will make sure Teddy wits for you here.'

Because his dad was at least trustworthy.

Gaara glanced at Naruto, then at the teddy for a moment, then nodded. If Naruto's dad was going to take care of it, then he could leave. Naruto's dad knew how important the toy was for him. He got up and left after Naruto, looking at father with silent plea, but Daichi ignored him, completely swallowed by the fact he had to eat soup like if he was not really hungry. The other kids went out of the room without protests. The room emptied up. Daichi ate the soup.

Minato hadn't been kidding when he told the other man he didn't have any friends. The last one he had had, he had lost after Kushina died and he started having problems… Nowadays, the only people he still had close were his editor and Jiraiya-sensei. And he had known them for so long that he didn't even remember if he had ever felt this awkward with them. The one to make friends easily had always been Kushina, not him. He could get along with people, but he always had problems taking the first step, and one of the things he hated the most was to be left alone with someone he was supposed to make conversation with.

'…did something happen?" he finally managed to ask. Not because it was a good question, God no. But even a bad question was better than this silence that made him want run for the bathroom and lock himself in there.

Daichi budged, like if Minato has just jabbed him with a knife. Gods, was it really that visible? He did his best to conceal his worry, but it seemed to be all in vain if someone barely knowing him could tell such a difference in his mood. Must've been the tiredness. He worked under a big stress for a lot during the whole day. He resumed in eating the soup, though this time he did it a little quicker than before. It was good to talk it out to someone but then, if only that someone was close to him. Only because Minato was babysitting his kids didn't mean he could be someone like that.

'No.' he muttered around the spoon, looking at the all in front of him 'Not really. Why do you ask?'

'I… wasn't kidding when I said you looked anemic.' And it wasn't just that either. The man looked like someone after a battle with the Dwimmerlaik, like if someone had tried to partially suck the soul out of him, and at least partially succeeded. 'And… you work too much.'

Daichi swallowed the pasta in long, painful swallowing. _Too much_. Gods, if only his boss thought so. Why was the blond looking up so much into his private life? Slowly, he took another plate of soup and started eating it like if he just continued the activity without a break.

'It's just the lack of sun.' he said, letting the spoon fill his mouth in automatic, drawled up motions 'I work inside the buildings so I don't have time to tan properly. And as for the working hours…' He waited, looking at the blond for a moment. Not that he had any agreements or amendments to make, he hadn't got a choice to have preferences in that matter. '…I work enough to satisfy people. Such job.'

Minato refrained from telling him the man had darker skin than he did, and just seemed contented that he was still eating. Wordlessly, he got up and went to the kitchen to reheat the slices of pizza that had been left from midday. Whatever had happened obviously the man didn't want to talk about it, he just hoped he wouldn't take it out on the kids. Speaking of which... his eyes followed the hall, where faint noises from the videogame came.

'Daichi-san… what happens to Temari and Kankuro while I'm looking after Gaara?'

The other man looked up at him from his plate, not even stopping the eating.

'They stay at school, they do their homework there.' he muttered. Of course they did, they had no other choice – and as for not having companions as the times flied, homework was more of killing the time than anything so he could at least not worry about them not having it 'If it gets too late they just wait for me in the hallway or outside. They're big enough for that. Is something wrong with that?'

'Well… yes.' The younger man said, looking rather surprised by such a question. 'They are too young to be left alone on their own for so long.' Not that he thought it was bad to maybe go one or two hours later, there really was no harm done to that, and he had stayed behind in school several times himself, but… the kid's father sometimes showed up as late as 9 P.M. Did they even eat at any point during it? 'Wouldn't it be better if you brought them here too?'

The man let out an ironical laughter as he let the spoon lay in the soup for a moment.

'What the heck are you talking about?...' he said, looking at the man like if he had hit his head. Which he probably did. How was he supposed to do something like that? He was at work, whole day long and couldn't reach his kids once he got there – last time was where he saw them in the morning when he ran them to every school they attended.

Gaara was babysat by Minato only because he was in the same kindergarten so he could go with Naruto home when Minato showed up. What was the man thinking? He was supposed to let kids not go to school to bring them to him or what? And besides, that would be too much to ask for. Kids were hungry, ate probably more than three grown men. He had no possibilities to return the favor. At all.

'I can't do that. Temari and Kankuro have school. Much further away than 'Three Hazelnuts'.' Such luck with lack of free spots in any closer kindergarten. But at least it was a school with good stature.'

'Ah. I see.' Muttered the other man, slowly putting down the plate with the pizza slices on the table along with the quickly mashed up sandwiches.

Daichi grunted, nodding above the plate of soup, paying attention but only half of it – now as his taste buds got awakened fully he wanted to have them as fully satisfied as he could. The slices of pizza were looking as good, even if quite fat pieces of servings. But as he said so many times – beggars not choosers – even if they could live above the lifestyle of common beggar. But not much.

'It's far away from 'Three Hazelnuts'.' he murmured, swallowing quite big piece of pasta 'And Temari goes to the district at East while Kankuro goes for the place at North. He is in special class.' He remembered how he opted against putting his middle kid there as it was a difficulty for both of them – him for having two places to go with kids at the morning and for Kankuro to adapt to new rules and treating. It was working, somehow, when Karura died – she could take care of him when he had to stay late and listened to him when he had difficult time at school. But that was good but short – lasted till she died. Now it was hard to cope with those doings even if he tried.

Why was he in special class again? Ah, something about special talents. Who cared, he was yet to be announced as great poet or dancer and other kids just called him stupid for such stature. It didn't seem to be a good move in the past… He took a bite of pizza. Oh, damn, that was bad. His liver won't let him sleep peacefully this night again. But he was so hungry… He ate the first slice in three bites.

'I see…' Minato said again, seeming more lost in thought that paying attention to the way the shorter man wolfed down the food. He must have been aware at some level, though, because he wordlessly got up and put a new filter in the coffee machine, before adding the desired amount of powder and water, leaving it to work. At least the man had regained some of the color, even if he still looked ungodly tired. Minato was sure he had read somewhere a plausible way to get everything in order, but it would be complicated and he wanted to be alone where he could look at what he wanted leisurely. Tomorrow, as he was quite tired. He literally hadn't slept in almost two days now.

At least tomorrow was Sunday and he wouldn't have to be on the phone so much and sleep until at least ten in the morning… Though more than likely he would get up an hour in and go to the internet to figure it out. It was easy for him to lose sleep over such matters. No way he would do it now, though… he really didn't want to have a discussion with the man.

Daichi ate in silence, slowly devouring the second slice of pizza, feeling like his stomach, now tied in knot, loosened up and started to fill up with concrete. But even with those ungodly amounts of cheese and fat he still felt like if he could eat half of the table – the magic of being starved after days. He reached out for the sandwiches with cheese, even if that seemed to go beyond the savoir vivre of a normal, average fed person. But he felt so tired he was not even looking up at the rules anymore.

And besides, it tasted good. Beyond good for a junk food and tomato soup. Almost like in this one restaurant he took Karura to when she told him that she wanted to see how it looked from inside. But better. But that was probably his hunger talking. And tiredness. And speaking of which, it seemed that he wasn't the one tired. He looked up from his plate shyly, trying to not make impression of being interested in anything beside food and observed the blond. Besides looking like a star from teenage Japanese drama who didn't have to wear makeup because mother nature decided to gift him with prettiness of a male mermaid (what? He was blonde and blue eyes, almost like every mermaid in Gaara's books), he looked like if he went through something long and hard.

He was probably overusing his hospitality.

'I'd better got going.' he murmured, swallowing the rest of the sandwich 'I overused you, you must be tired after taking care of my livid kids… thank you for a meal.'

'Hmm? Sorry?' The blond straightened, as if he had been found sleeping in class, though he hadn't really been even close to dozing off, just lost in thought. 'Sorry, I just… I was thinking of something. I'm making coffee, if you wait a moment…' his voice dissolving into a small mumble, the blond got up and disappeared into the kitchen, more than likely just so the man wouldn't have an excuse to leave. He returned less than five minutes later with two coffee mugs and the box of milk, leaving them on the table and pushing one of the mugs in the redhead's direction, then disappeared another moment and returned with the sugar.

Daichi stood, checking his coat for a moment, watching the blond leave and come back with two mugs of coffee. Two big hot mugs of black aromatic coffee… He swallowed saliva wordlessly, feeling how his taste buds screamed at him for the taste he haven't chance to get since two months. He looked at the blond as he disappeared from his sight again and watched the cups. Almost like if the blond wanted to make him stay longer while he was about to fall asleep on him. And what was worse – this weapon had actually worked on him.

He looked after the man once, twice and finally sat down, catching the mug in his hands as quickly as he could to hide that his hands trembled. He was addicted. He needed an addiction to make the stress go away… But he didn't drink. The mug warmed up his hands strangely nice.

'I can't make this go to waste.' he mumbled, watching the table, shooting a few nervous glances at him and spinning the mug in his hands in quick, irregular moves '…if I can. You seem to be quite tired, I wouldn't want to tire you out…'

The blond smiled.

'Please, don't worry. I'm still waiting a call so I can't go to bed yet.' he said, lying smoothly. He often did it like that- just said something before even thinking too much about what it was and there it appeared; a bright, shiny new lie that was so harmless and in context few would expect it not to be actually real. He was seldom aware of how often he did it, and ever more rarely worried about it. 'Milk?' he added just enough of it to lighten his own mug a tone or two, and a single spoon of sugar.

'No, no, thank you.' said the man, quickly raising the mug to his mouth and drinking a sip. It was dark, bitter and warm enough to make his nervousness cease, along with jumping of his stomach. Somehow, he felt like he shouldn't be sitting in that place at all 'I like it black. Weird, I know.' He added as he looked into the mug of the blond – it was probably a liquid version of coffee candy – bittersweetish. He swallowed second sip.

He didn't know what to say, to make a light conversation about nothing. The weather outside didn't seem to be an indicating subject to get into. And other words just desperately wanted to get out from his mouth as they squirmed on his tongue and knocked to his teeth. Scandalous words. He decided not to comment on the house. It seemed to be too private and out of the blue. He glanced at the blond again. He also wore this light colored things that teenage drama idols usually wore. Maybe he was an actor in hiding?...

He looked at his coffee again. Actor in hiding or not, it was not nice to tax out someone who helped you out. And a lot at that. He blinked, musing out. A whole lot. And he couldn't even promise him a beer for this. 'Thank you.' He muttered, knowing it was all he could do now.

'For everything. I will pay you back for it in future.'

The younger man quickly shook his head.

'Please, really… It's nothing at all. It was nice to have the kids over. It's been a while since the house was so lively.' And he meant it, too. Kushina had been a lively, noisy person. Naruto wasn't really far behind on terms of it, but over the years Minato had gotten used to waking up to rock music at ungodly volumes, plates being nosily set up and his future wife yelling from one room to the other, as she rarely bothered to come closer for conversation if she was busy somewhere else. 'We really enjoyed having the kids over. Please don't doubt on letting me know if you need to have them looked after again.'

'Right, right…' said the man, sipping on the coffee again and tossing more glances at the blond. That sounded like a nice proposition to not turn it down even if the good manners said to politely decline even if he wanted it 'But…'

He hesitated. He really couldn't leave it like that. But then, her couldn't really speak about paying back for anything. Not today. Not now. He took another sip of coffee, dismissing the question. Now his full insides felt also warm and lazy. The caffeine obviously hadn't kicked in yet.

'I could… take care of Naruto too.' he blurted out then almost bit his tongue on what he said. No, no. Really, he couldn't. He couldn't even feed him in his own home right now. But he spoke it already. Hopefully, the blond wouldn't want such an old rug to take care of the angelic blond photocopy of his.

'T-that won't be necessary.' the younger man said, his voice barely faltering at the first word. Someone else taking care of Naruto, someone he barely knew, someone that he still wasn't sure what he did all day and who obviously had problems? No, he wasn't ready for that? It took him enough sleepless night to decide on Iruka, he wasn't ready for this at all. 'You really work a lot Daichi-san, and I work at home so I have more spare time, but I appreciate the gesture.' he said a little more relaxed, and giving another smile to the saffron-haired man. 'Besides, Naruto really is more than a handful, I really wouldn't wish dealing with him to my worst enemy.'

Daichi let out a small laughter.

'It's hard to believe you have any enemies.' he said, the relaxing pose of the blond getting into him and making him relax a bit unconsciously 'Living in such a place like that…'

He took a bigger swing of coffee and almost choked when he realized what he just said. He covered it with quickly drinking the rest and making the mug stand on the table with careful gesture.

'I-I'm sorry.' He said, not knowing what was he exactly sorry for – for uneasy question or drinking the coffee so impolitely quickly 'I had a long day and I'm not exactly myself, so…'

So what? Sorry that he asked? Sorry that he didn't decline? He tossed a glance at the blond, feeling the shame. Gods, how he wished Karura was there. She usually could cover up any of his stupid behaviors at talking.

'…I think I really should go.' he said finally, holding on the cup so tightly it was a miracle it didn't break. Or maybe it would be a miracle if it did – his hands were not exactly strong since he stopped eating 'I wouldn't want to interrupt your call.'

'Please don't be… Remember, it's not my house.' the blond said with another smile, though this was considerably fake when compared to the others. More lies. Not to mention the man would probably have a fit if he had seen the place where they lived previously. Minato certainly could relate. 'You do seem tired.' But at least the man seemed rather more alive, at least compared with the paper figure that had rang the doorbell about thirty minutes ago. 'I'm sorry for holding you up for so long… I'll go get the kids.'

Leaving his half empty mug, he walked down the hallway to his room, the well remembered bleeps and klings of any of the Mario bros games making him smile- the new ones didn't hold a candle to such antics.

'Kids? It's time to go.' he called softly, turning on the lights and ignoring his son's drawn out 'aw' of complaint. 'It was really nice having you all today, I hope you can come by soon again.' he said, smiling down at them, and trying not to wince at the miserable expression the redhead wore. He'd obviously been crying for a longer while after having the teddy taken.

'Gaara…' without thinking too much about it, Minato picked the redhead up and gave him a soft squeeze. 'Please don't be sad. If you tell your father that you are very sorry for trying to hit him, I'm sure he will give you back your teddy.'

The redhead glued to him almost right away, catching him by his neck and clamping him in that hug so he would either pick him up or stand there like that until he got tired. He nodded in agreement, even if he really didn't want to agree and didn't want to do it. Saying sorry to daddy was always a very embarrassing and hard thing to do so he didn't want to get though that. Especially that it wasn't his fault for that daddy ignored him. He did his best to have his attention. He just didn't do it well enough.

'I want' my teddy.' he mumbled, feeling very, very sad and hugging closer, until he hid his face from the world. 'Mommy will be sad…' He hiccupped, clinging even tighter on the blond, trembling with whole body with unshed tears. Nobody understood what he said. His siblings didn't want to listen.

Oh… trapped. Like a bear trap with huge green eyes. He had fallen on it again.

'Gaara…' he almost tried to pry the kid off, but his voice was so miserable the father in him couldn't bear it, so he picked him up like the kid obviously wanted him to and rubbed at his back consolingly as he walked in circles around the room. 'You'll get your teddy back, Gaara…' he said, not knowing how to address the problem with his mother. It wasn't his place. He had enough with his own son and their situation, and his half-assed religion might not be appropriate for the little redhead. He just wished he could do something for him, it was obvious he needed attention.

And his father worked so much…. It would have been different if he had a mother, but that was not the case. How did the man manage with three kids? He had enough problems with just one, and his was a considerable more positive situation. Of course, Minato wasn't by far the most appropriate person to handle kids at all, but still… Three of them. And with such little differences in age, practically a little over a year!

'Don't be sad, please?' he asked, hugging him close, suddenly noticing that his son seemed to have disappeared. '…Naruto?'

His son was spying at his friend's father from a corner of the couch, the man looking less threatening kneeling at the table, which made him more or less his height, but that didn't mean that what he wanted to do wasn't something almost suicidal. If he knew what suicidal meant. It was a dangerous thing to do, though, very dangerous. Gaara had told him his dad might eat him if angered.

Ever so casually he moved from behind the couch, patting it a bit to get it to puff up right even though it was perfect the way it was. After several seconds of pushing a balled up kilt so it wasn't half-lying on the floor, he finally turned and stared at the man directly, hands balling in the orange shirt he was wearing.

'Gaara's crying.' he told the man in a way that could scarcely be interpreted as anything other than 'well, I hope you are proud of yourself now' despite the obvious fear he felt '…he's really, really, reeeally sorry, so can you please give him back teddy…?' he added something else, but his bravery seemed to have run out and what he said was more of a squeak than anything else. It almost -almost- sounded like 'and maybe a hug…'

Daichi observed the little kid as well, with deepening frown. What was this little squirt doing? He rarely approached him if Gaara wasn't around so the situation was pretty new to him. And a little anxious. He taught his kids to not get into troubles of such kinds when they had any visitors. Naruto was obviously void of such knowledge. Once he heard what the blond wanted to say though, his frown ruined the rest of his indifferent face into a very sour grimace.

'If that's a joke' he said loud and clear, so the kid of age of Naruto would understand it perfectly well 'Then I'm not laughing. Nobody taught you to not question elders?'

Because, really, if anything, he expected more to be scolded by Minato and not by his kid.

'You should know that boys who cry get no hugs. Being a wimpy is not a thing to be proud of.'

The blond moved a little away at the face the man made, almost as if he were a distrusting cat whose human was waving a foreign object at it and I wasn't really sure if it was supposed to be a toy, food or something possibly threatening. At his words, however, he seemed to forget his fear.

'Why would I be joking?' the blond asked, clearly misunderstanding the topic of discussing. 'Gaara's sad and crying, why would that be funny?'

Some mean kids sometimes laughed when other's cried, but what an awful thing to think that Gaara's dad would be the same kind of person to do those things. He had thought adults would know better than that kind of thing.

'When you cry it's when you want a hug the most, when else would you really need a hug?' He asked, giving the man a look that suggested he had missed some very big spot in basic human interaction '…and Gaara wasn't crying when you got home, and you still didn't hug him.'

Daichi smiled at the kid widely, yet ironically.

'So, when you cry you need the hug, yes?' he uttered in syrupy, but not really sweet tone of voice 'How pure you are, Naruto. Really.'

He slowly leaned on toward him and propped his head on his palm, while still giving off the kid the oily, sardonic smile.

'Sometimes, when you cry, the last thing on the world you need is a hug.' he spoke in slow, teaching tone. The kid needed to be taught about a few basic truths there as it seemed 'And sometimes when you cry you're not going to get any hug. Sometimes it's so hard that all you want to do is cry and be hugged, but you know what? You can't even utter a tear, because you have to be strong. Do you know why?' He leaned closer, lowering the tone of his voice so it could be still detectable, but making it one of a kind, the one you made only when you wanted to communicate something in secret or in conspiracy. Which worked perfectly well on any kind of audience, and since Naruto was only a little kid, he had no doubts it would allure him closer.

'Because life is hard on us, adults, that's why.' He whispered, straightening the little wrinkle on the kid's shirt 'You see, Naruto, Gaara is not such a little baby as you are, he already is much bigger than he seems to be. And he needs to understand that he is not going to get hugged every time he wants to, because once I won't be there, he will die in this hard life. Do you understand, brat?' He looked at him with taxing gaze, then let out a small chuckle and leaned back, approving of the looks of retouched shirt.

'I don't care if you do.' he muttered, looking at him from above 'You can talk with me once you will get kicked by life just as hard as Gaara was. And that's yet to be done. So go now and don't you dare to discuss my lack of hugs or next time I will get really, really angry. Shoo.'

Naruto flinched, but didn't run away at the touch, just looking down in surprise at the fact the man had just fixed his shirt.

'Gaara is not an adult, he's my age.' the blond said stubbornly. 'If you don't want to hug him, that's fine. I'll hug him whenever he wants to or when he doesn't, and so will my daddy…' At the mention of his father a strange expression crossed the kid's face and he looked down the hallway in his father's room direction, almost as if he was afraid he had overhead what the other had said. '…and don't tell those things to my daddy. You'll only make him sad and he doesn't need that.' he said, his voice soft. His eyes slowly moved to another of the room 'Maybe it's you who should get sad pills.' Daichi's frown deepened even more. Sad pills? Did that mean… that the blond was taking medicaments for depression? Why? In this wealthy, sweet life of healthiness and richness? He remembered that he never saw Mrs. Uzumaki, so maybe that was the case, but…

…that started to feel wrong. He didn't want his kids to be under influence of someone who could have mood swings or get too drugged to talk coherent things. Forgetting about savoir vivre, he stood up from the table and followed after the trail of little blond until he spotted the bigger one. With his youngest offspring in his arms. Now that was a little too much. It was a clear going around his rules which could lead only to breaking his authority in kid's life. And without authority he could only take a knife and threaten them to obedience. His nerves wouldn't take well brats who would start questioning his orders, he was sure of it. Not now, not yet. And especially not on the day when he was almost fired from work while Yura took all fruits of his work.

'Mr. Uzumaki, I have a request for you.' he said in a tone that could freeze the northern hemisphere of the land 'Don't spoil my kids against my bans. It's enough for your kid to disturb my person with his lack of respect toward elders, I don't need my kids to start doing the same.'

Minato nearly jumped out of his skin a she was giving his back to the door at the moment the door opened, eyes immediately jumping around the room for anything incriminatory- just his notes, and his 'inspired' handwriting was almost impossible to recognize anyway, but still-

'Naru, what did you do…?' he asked, not seeming to notice that he still had Gaara in his arms and not making any move towards letting go of him. Naruto gave him a wide eyed look of surprise, straightened from his slumped position in bed.

'Nuthing!' he gave the man the same look, though this time it was decidedly more on the unfriendly side. 'I asked him to stop making Gaara sad and he said he didn't want to, so I came back here!'

Minato gave the redhead a somewhat worried look.

Gaara kept on clawing on Minato's neck like a cat that could get drown once he could release the hold on the only dry place he was getting hold onto. Which seemed to be blond's body at this point. At the conversation though, he rose his hidden head to peak at father with puffy, red eyes – both scared and expecting.

Daichi looked back with usual coldness in his eyes. Gaara kept on looking. He didn't seem to have his teddy in his hands or… anywhere close to him. So it was probably left somewhere back there. Maybe he was not angry anymore?... but no, daddy had this scary face still, so he was probably still angry. But even like that, he just seemed to be more touchable than Minato. Not that the arms of the blond weren't warm… or huggy… or very, very nice… but it was nothing compared to daddy's hug. Because.

He hesitantly reached out for the man from blond's arms with stubborn glare that seemed to match Daichi's own for a moment just to glisten up with water. Daichi looked at him in silence.

'As I said, don't spoil my kid.' he muttered in cold tone and moved forward, bypassing the pair to look closer at the little blond. 'And as for your 'nothing' I would say it was quite something… but I will let it go this time.' he said, watching the unfriendly gaze. He didn't really want to let it go, but he knew that he was in need and as in need it was not good to stomp on your donor's foot. So he decided to swallow the need for justice. He turned around to Minato only to see that Gaara still held his hands toward him with stubbornness that seemed to test his patience. He winced.

'Oh, for gods' sake, stop that. You've been probably pampered whole day long like a little girl. I'm still angry at you, there will be no hugging.'

Gaara didn't flatter, even as his face saddened even more. He didn't feel spoiled. Or wrong. Or babyfied. Or girlified. He just liked to feel closeness of a body. And he wanted to be close to daddy. Because daddy was what provided safety and the only kind of warmth in the world nobody else provided, even if it was someone just as nice as Naruto's dad. He whimpered. His hands started to feel tired in that position.

'Daddy…' Daichi tsked. Gaara, felt more and more sad and even if he really, really didn't want to do that anymore, he felt like his eyes stung a little and watered more. The other man frowned even more and turned around to get out of the room.

'I'm not putting up with your hysteria anymore. We will talk once you will calm down. Please, stop pampering him, Mr. Uzumaki.' And he walked out of the room. Gaara slowly let his hands fall as he leaned into Minato and cried quietly with fat, blobby tears that were more salty than watery since he cried just too much today. Naru gaped at the older man as he left the room, and with a fierce scowl he moved as if to chase after him, being stopped by a large hand on his shoulder.

'Naru, don't.'

'He did that on purpose!' he exclaimed, pointing at the door emphatically.

'Naru.' With a sigh, Minato sat down in bed.

'He did that just to make him cry, daddy!' the boy said, climbing up the bed and rubbing his friend's back consolingly.

'Gaara, don't listen to him, he's like those bullies on TV that break stuff and push old ladies and… kick kittens…' Maybe he was getting shows mixed now…

Minato couldn't help but agree. He didn't think there would be any other reason to say something so cruel to a little kid… Hysteria…? The kid had his head split open just yesterday because the man left him alone in charge of a seven year old…

'Please don't cry any more, Gaara… You'll make me and Naru sad if you do, and then your dad will think bad stuff about us and won't let you come back.' And that's what scared him the most. He really didn't know what to think of the man at all. Sometimes he looked like a father that was having much more than he could handle and was being slowly buried alive by the situation, but then he did or said something that made him look like a total bastard…

He kept telling himself the only proof he needed was the fact those kids adored the man in a way that said he took good care of them, but he was scared for them. Kids shouldn't be left alone for hours at a time without anyone taking care of them, or accidents happened. He was no one, not one at all to judge the older man, especially with all that had happened to him, but he had done all he could to correct his mistake after Naruto's accident. And then that lawsuit, Jesus.

'Things will go better in the end, like in the movie, I promise.' he said, giving the redhead another hug, then pulling away to reach on his drawers for a handkerchief. 'Enough with the crying, okay? It's hard for the sad parts to pass if people are still crying.'

Gaara nodded wordlessly, taking the handkerchief from blond and wiping his face with long, hard moves. He was very sad and kept on looking down, which made him have a shadowed look that didn't seem to look good on the reddened eyes. Almost like a bunny in hiding. Why was this happening to him?

He shouldn't have hit him with teddy, he knew that. But it was simply unfair, daddy was never home and when he was he ignored them all… Kankuro was lucky. He's got patted on the head at the beginning. But he didn't seem to be any happier because of that. Or Temari for that matter.

He sniffed, giving the piece of material to Minato and looked at the floor. He didn't have his teddy. Without thinking much, he just moved to the little blond and hugged him like his toy. There. Not like a toy but he felt much, much better. Naruto was just the good size for hugging, unlike his siblings.

'I want the happy end to come now.' he said quietly and pushed Naruto to move forward. Daddy was probably waiting for him in the hallway.

Naruto oomphed at the redhead's weight, but just moved to hug him back, still giving angry looks towards the door.

'Me too, I like it better when you are happy.' the blond said, patting the redhead well above the bandages on his head. Gaara's dad was a total bully. He probably didn't have hugs when he needed them, either. He let the redhead drag him to the door, even though he didn't feel like saying bye to the older man at all. He'd show him how it's done, let's see if he learnt from good examples. His father took a moment to hide his notes, and after sighing to compose himself, followed the pair outside.

And there, Kankuro and Temari stood, clothed up and fastened till the hilt of their necks already, waiting. Daichi was buttoning up his coat. Gaara looked at him vigilantly, then he slowly let go of the blond and moved forward to wear his shoes. No words were uttered. Daichi watched him doing that and once he was sure that Gaara was not mistaking sides, he turned to Minato.

'Thank you for your hospitality. I'm sorry for what my kids did there, I should've warned you…' though he didn't think that would actually stop anything from happening. His kids were his after all – got his stubbornness in every bad aspect. This clash probably wouldn't look good if they weren't so obedient to him 'We will be going now. I will bring Gaara on Monday as usual…'

He tossed a glance toward the redheaded kid who leisurely kept on trying on his thin coat for summer. He'd have to remember to make Gaara wear his own coat once they would get into the car. He looked at the blond. He was not sure if his kids didn't overdo it, especially his youngest one. But if they did, he'd have to be ready for refusal right now.

'The kids behaved perfectly.' the older blond said, his voice soft as he absently stroked his own son's head. 'They even help me set the table and clean afterwards.' he said, giving the girl a small, thankful smile, even though the least he wanted to do was smile at the moment. He wanted to say other things, too. Like that he should leave them all with him, or that Gaara had been perfectly fine until he had treated him like that, but didn't. The man was obviously tired and stressed and getting into an argument was the least he wanted right now, especially when it could mean not seeing them again. Maybe tomorrow.

'Let me get you Gaara's medicine… I gave it to him at 6P.M.' which meant next dosage should be at 12 A.M. and 6 A.M. respectively.

'They did? That's nice of you, brats.' said the saffron haired man, giving a stroke to the heads of Kankuro and Temari. They didn't seem to be very flattered by that – more like scared, but a small smile of enjoyment flashed on Kankuro's face while Temari let out a small squeak of something that could be called anything but sad. Gaara looked at that with hollow gaze, then he curled around the teddy more, hiding his face.

'I dun wan medicine.' he mumbled into the plush in a hurt tone that made Daichi glance back at him.

'...thank you.' Was uttered as he still watched his youngest and let go of his kids 'It's important for him to take it.' The redhead only curled around the plush more, like if he was getting ready to be hit by oncoming train, even if nothing of such sort was taking place. Daichi tore his eyes from him, taking the bottle with pills.

'We will be going now. Take care.' The last glance was tossed at Naruto, but no words were added by the other man. Kankuro waved at them with his two dolls as he was given back the figurine now and Temari shot them a toothy but insecure grin that looked more like flaring the teeth instead of an actual smile. Gaara peaked at them but didn't make a move at the goodbyes, only walked out, trailing after the rest of his family. And then, they were gone.

Naruto stared insecurely after the family, before running outside and climbing up the veranda so he could shut down at the departing group.

'…Gaara! Please take your medicine or you can die!' he cried, before his father picked him up before he had a chance to fall over the edge, holding him to his chest and looking down as well. '…why is he so mean to Gaara, daddy?' the blond asked wrapping his arms around the older man and leaning on his shoulder tiredly. 'I hug you when you are sad.'

'I know you do, Naru.' Minato said, following the path with dark blue eyes as well. 'And it's very nice of you to do that… what you did for Gaara too. I'm very proud, but don't bother him anymore, or he might get mad and not let Gaara come over anymore.' The boy's arms tightened around his neck at that.

'Gaara's okay. He just gets really sad, like you, daddy.' he huffed. 'He's just mean. If he had been nice to him, Gaara wouldn't have cried like that. He stole teddy just to make him cry and was real mean.'

Minato bit his lip, remembering the photography hidden in the toy's zipper and wondering if the man would ever address such an important issue. He thought of the kids waiting as much as seven hours after the end of classes with nothing to do, and more than likely, nothing to eat.

'Sometimes things are just complicated… Gaara and the other wouldn't love him so much if he really was mean to them.'

'Are you sure…?' the younger boy asked, sounding as if he wanted to be convinced. 'Of course. Would you like me if I were mean to you…?'

Naruto made a soft snorting sound.

'Daddy… you'd never hurt me.' The tone suggested Minato had just said something utterly incoherent in this side of reality. It made his father's heart break, especially when he saw the soft marks left on the boy's cheek.

'…let's go sleep. It's late.'

Nodding agreeing, the little one left himself be deposited inside and ran back to brush his teeth, leaving Minato looking down at the empty parking lot, wondering if what he was doing would end up being another mistake.

At the other side of the street, the car moved through the vaguely empty street toward the true target of their whole dayish journey – their home. Daichi felt that if anything, he felt refreshed after a hearty meal and that it was not so easy to lull to sleep now after a cup of coffee of a good brand – but still, his eyes were tired and hands demanded a proper rest. Kankuro kept on babbling about what they did and didn't do with Temari occasionally piping in or taking the lead of their conversation when it came to things she did better or did somewhere else which meant without her brothers.

He listened to it half-heartedly as he was too unfocused to actually take notice of all things the kids thought were important, like green dots on some 'Twister' game or some mug with cat on it and kept on looking on the mirror above his head, tossing Gaara disturbed glances. His youngest didn't say anything as they walked out of the house of Uzumakis and kept on being silent and obedient even when the little blond started shouting from the veranda of his home. He seemed to know his lesson, but his lack of responses suggested that he got it learned it a little too well. He had enough of problems for now so he tried to focus on driving solely, but he knew how disturbed and weirded out his youngest was and any psychological training that worked well on his older kids usually had twisted results on him. He suspected that it was possible for Gaara to need a help of psychiatrist, but visits meant time he didn't have and payments he was not able to take care of. He tried to be a good parent, but it was not so easy to forget about things as shame, savoir vivre and pride when you were poor. Because it was the only thing they really had. And Gaara still seemed to not be toughened up by it. But how to train such a fragile softie? Maybe if Gaara was the only kid… not that he didn't love Kankuro and Temari, they were his real joys in this life, but Gaara still seemed to be in need of most of his attention, almost like if he was handicapped and loneliness… would be helpful here.

Just look at Uzumakis. Minato had only one brat and lived off such a job as translator which is a cheap job that is not able to feed off many. And look – he lived in such a great conditions…

…and he could barely afford four of them all. And soon, if his luck really wanted to spit on him, he wouldn't be able to afford even this cheap salary he was already getting. Thanks, paternity. Thanks for his not completely dried up feelings he missed a great opportunity to feed those kids. God… why do you hate my family so much.

Such thoughts ran through his head as he drove and lead his kids back to home where still bloody stains dried up on the carpet and furniture, where mice ran around proving their existence with every coming in and switching lights and where phones didn't work. It would be a miracle if once one of his kids, if not all three of them, wouldn't ask him with grievance: daddy, why did we not have a normal home? Were you too stupid to earn real money? Good they didn't do it yet. But after seeing how little Naruto lived, it was possible it was not very far away from them.

He washed and changed clothes along with kids, helping them take off their blouses and shirts, shaving at the end of the day as he always did for that he forgot doing that at the morning (until he noticed he wasted a good portion of gel because the next day was Sunday. Shoots) and used up water along with them to waste the least possible amount. Temari was first to go as she was a girl and she started to be ashamed of boys due the differences in school, though she still was yet to be chastened by the nakedness of her own daddy (and he was still hesitating in making her do that as this would probably be another problem with using up the water) and she was quickest from them all, even if she had to take care more of her hygiene than boys did.

Then he took both boys together – Kankuro still kept on babbling, almost unlike himself and Gaara almost acted like a rag doll, dull with movements and obedient to the point he wondered if he demanded from him to jump on the head from the bathtub, would he do that. But that was good, at some point, because at least he was not complaining about soap getting to his tender eyes, just grimaced.

But after they came out of the bathroom, he stopped hiding in the tail of his, just started trailing him everywhere he went, like a lost puppy. He didn't comment on that as he made Temari lie down and listened for another minute to Kankuro who seemed to be far away into his story and talking about something completely different (unless Uzumakis suddenly came out as hydraulics and banged their heads on their walls that seemed to contain also… mushrooms?... the kid was probably too tired and too excited to make a sense) and kissed him goodnight, which made Gaara let out a whimper.

Yes, it was definitely not over from his side. With a sigh he got out of the room, hearing soft footsteps following him and went to the bathroom again, only to order the kid to sit down on the seat and take out old band aids from the board above the mirror. There. Even standing obediently, the water and soap polluted the old one so he had to make sure the kid wouldn't sleep with wet thing on his head. Gaara didn't do anything, just stared at him with glassy eyes as he slowly undid the thing, uncovering the sewed wound.

Now, that didn't look nice. But not that bad, comparing to the blood on the floor. One would think that he actually cut off his leg or something. Who knew that kids bled so much… But oh, he knew who would think like that, he knew very well…

'Daddy?'

He looked at the kid while making sure that the skin was dry and undid the clean roll.

'What is it, Gaara?' he murmured, starting to cover the forehead. Good kid, sat still…

'I'm sorry.'

He nodded absent mindedly, trying to make the thing not to be overdone as he tied it at the ends. Gaara made a noise. He looked back at him. His face seemed to be more and more uncheerful as the eyes glinted dangerously close to tearing up. Great…

'Daddy…' was muttered in pleading tone as the dusty plush was hugged tighter to the small chest 'Don't you love me anymore?...'

That question took him aback. What?...

'Oh please, don't be funny…' he murmured in incredulous tone, trying to laugh it off with nervous laughter. He couldn't believe that after all he did for him the kid dared to think, bah, even get such idea to his head. He got up, leaving the bathroom with bitter feeling in his throat. He had to make the sofa ready for them as his room was still bloodied up and he had no time to even change the sheets or roll up the carpet. And he didn't really want to sleep in such surrounding. The small feet followed him.

'Gaara, go to bed…'

'No…' He snorted at such sudden disobedience as he took out the sheets and started doing the bed for himself.

'Then switch off the lights in the bathroom and go to your room.' he murmured. Soon the footsteps ran back to the bathroom to click off the lights, but when he turned around to take out his pillows, he saw his youngest standing directly behind him with an expression of such pain he had to stop to look at it. It was just impossible. 'Gaara, what did I tell you-'

He stopped as the kid saw he got his attention and shot his hands up at him, almost making the plush he had in his arms dangle poorly on his shoulder. He closed his mouth and resumed taking care of sheets. Gods, what a stubborn kid. In future he'd be probably the one to drive him mad with adolescence tantrums or drive girls mad after becoming a stalker. It was rare to meet such resistance in kid at this age. But maybe it would weaken in the future.

Hopefully it will. Because he was barely able to contain his anger and hopelessness at this point already. All he wanted to do was actually hit the kid for being such a piece of resistance and drag him away to bed to make him stop starring at him with such a plea. Because he hated when they did that. He really, really hated it. It made him feel like the worst bastard on the world. And he knew he was not like that. He did everything for them to raise them for good men and woman, to make them live a worthy life…

'Gaara, go back to bed.' he ordered, taking out the quilt ' I'll count down to five, and if I won't see you in bed by then…'

'Daddy…' a plea. He gripped the quilt harder. 'Daddy!...'

'One.' He unfolded the material, letting it blow out and fall on the cramped sofa and straightened the wrinkles – which was not really needed, but he felt that if anything, he needed to give Gaara the fair amount of time to run back to his room. And to himself – to not do anything stupid. He didn't hear the kid to move from the spot. 'Two.'

Gaara whimpered and tapped the floor quickly as he ran around him, still not letting his hands fall and look at him with stubbornness but still with glassy eyes and loosing the plush in the process. He glanced at the forgotten thing on the floor then sighed, wearing the top of his pajama and getting away from the sofa. The kid followed. Seriously, the brat was starting to get on his nerves…

'Gaara, I'm serious.' He said, buttoning up the shirt. The kid let out another whimper 'Three.'

'No!' could be heard as the kid ran after him as he changed his pants 'No, daddy, please… please, I'm sorry!... I'm sorry!...'

He glanced at the desperate face as he took off his jeans he wore after bath to not walk around naked and fastened the pajama ones around his belt. The kid was all flushed and so desperate one would think he would actually grow wings to reach what he wanted to get. He really made a wrong move in hugging him yesterday. Too much spoiling on his side. And that was going overboard. Far too much.

'What the heck are you sorry for?' he asked after all, turning to the kid. Gaara backed away, hiding his hands toward himself 'You are not sorry yet, but you sure will be if you won't listen to me right now!'

'No!...' was the weak response and hands reached out for him again. The never-ending battle. Oh, if Karura could see this, she'd probably have a scene worth watching. 'Daddy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I won't do that again, I'm sorry, I won't-'

'You won't do w h a t?'

'Daddy!...'

'Bed!'

'No!...'

'Fiv-' His sentence was cut off in the middle by a loud wail that came out of Gaara's mouth as he let his hands fall down and just sat down on the floor, crying his heart out. Daichi winced. Oh, for gods' sak-

'I'm sorry, daddy! I'm sorry!...' bawled the kid, waking probably Temari and Kankuro and half of the house. If that continued his cold hearted neighbors could for once get annoyed too much and call the police. And that would be the perfect end of that damned day. Just perfect 'Daddy, I won't do that again, I won't miss you and I won't hug you and I won't do anything, just don't hate meee!...'

That made him stop. He was about to catch the kid to drag him away to bed against his resistance, but the words were a little too much. Hate him? Gaara? What the heck was the kid talking about?

'What are you saying, Gaara?...' he asked, getting close to the kid. His youngest sat still on the floor, crying like if there was no tomorrow 'I don't hate you.'

'You so dooo!...' was the answer. That made him wince more 'I only wanted to be close and you don't do that at all and you get angry at me and you kiss Kankuro and Temari and not meee!... Daddyyy!...'

The cry was so loud and so painful it almost filled the room visibly, which made Daichi in the state of loss. He didn't expect Gaara to feel it so much, to take it so negatively. Kankuro never cried so much and Temari took it almost too well in comparison to that. But now that he thought of it, the hollow emptiness in their eyes was speaking much more for the silence they sat in through those times. It felt almost too scary to think that the other kids felt similar pain before and didn't dare to tell him about it. He looked at Gaara.

'No, that's not true, you don't understand…' he started, but none of these words reached the kid through the loud wail. He crouched down wanting to stroke the mass of hair, but the kid almost instantly caught his arms and hugged himself to it so he had no choice, but to finally hug him fully. There. Like that. Head to shoulder and body to body 'Gaara, that's not true… Gaara, stop crying, stop- I'm sorry… I am. Really.'

The kid didn't stop crying, just clutched to his shirt like a small leech and bawled on, like if he was extremely hurt. And probably, he was. Daichi, beyond himself and all his rules started to feel that the mood of the little package in his arms started to become contagious as well. He stroked the hair and small back, rocking him like a little newborn, but all with little to no result. It seemed like if Gaara just got into a long path of crying with no turning back and decided to continue it on. He walked around with him, looking at the clock. 12:10 A.M. Great, he almost forgot about his medicine. He walked with him to the kitchen slowly, still rocking him. Once he switched on the lights, the green eyes looked at him. His heart clenched.

'Gaara, please, stop.' he murmured, petting the hair and the bandage as the body just clawed at him more. He felt his eyes starting to sting 'Kid, please… or I will cry with you.' That made the kid curl up to him and hug him so tightly he almost could say it was painful. If Gaara was any bigger than he was, it would probably be a right thing to say about it. He carefully hugged back, taking out the package with pills.

'I'm sorry, daddy…' he murmured through hiccupping and sobbing 'I love you, don't cry...'

Now that made him lean on the counter. Really, the kid was the best terrorist on the world. And he did it unconsciously. He hugged himself to the body as much as he could, kissing the red hair and slowly rocking them both. Gods, he felt so much worse right now. So much. This kid didn't deserve any training. He deserved food. And toys. And books. And health. And everything he couldn't give him.

'I love you too.' he murmured, barely hearable. But Gaara heard that, he was sure of it. 'And I'm sorry too.' Really, he could be dense sometimes.

But he never really understood much when it came to kids. He was young so long time ago. And kids were only kids after all… if only Karura was alive she would probably help him in that. And now he had no one. He really should've start thinking about searching for someone. Even with his screwed up schedule. Maybe even tomorrow.

'Gaara.' he murmured as the kid calmed down enough to not tremble against him 'It's time to take your pill.'

'But will you sleep with me?...' He nodded. Yes. Yes, he will. 'Okay.'

And the redhead took it without complaint. There. Good kid. He stroked his head in exchange and the kid has glued itself to him, sniffing a bit, like a magnet to the fridge. He sighed.

'You are a good kid, Gaara.'

'That pill was yucky.'

'I know, Gaara. I know.' He walked out of the room to sit on the sofa. But Gaara immediately looked at him like if he did something wrong. He frowned. But?...

'That's the sofa.' said the kid, looking at the quilt. Daichi looked at it also.

'Yes, it is.' he answered truthfully. What's was wrong with that?

'I don't like it, you're heavy. And you said you will sleep with me.' Now that didn't make any sense.

'What do you mean?...' he asked, looking around. He was going to sleep with him, right? He had already agreed. And they were on the right place…

'You said you will sleep with me.' said Gaara like if he was really, really stupid 'Not with you. With me.'

Oh. Now he got it. Gaara wanted to sleep with him in his own bed. In his own little bed… He made a grimace. His legs would hurt him tomorrow morning again. But he promised. So there was no getting out of this right now.

He got up. Gaara smiled at him. Daddy really was a strange creature, but he was the best on the world. Sure, he could act really bad and make him cry but once he hugged him everything was all right. And he could be there like now just forever. And perspective of spending the night with him in his comfortable bed and not this cramped up sofa was more than pleasant. The fears from few minutes ago felt almost like if they didn't exist.

But just to be sure, he didn't dare to let go of him. If daddy wanted to change his mind…

But no, he didn't, he actually lied down with him. And so very close. It was almost too good. Almost, because something was lacking, something…

'Daddy.' he piped out quietly, not wanting to wake up Kankuro who would probably want to join them and now all he wanted was to have daddy to himself. Because Kankuro had him earlier. Now was his time to do it 'Can teddy sleep with us?'

The man looked at him with still eyes, like if he didn't know what he was talking about, then nodded with a tired gesture. Gaara smiled. But now, getting up from bed without daddy who could get away from him and leave him like that seemed to be… seemed to be…

'It's dark out there.' he muttered quietly, hugging himself to the warm neck. Daichi groaned.

'Then turn on the light.'

'I'm scared.' he continued, clutching to the man. No, not really, he knew that monsters didn't exist. Or at least they didn't exist when he searched for them with teddy. Probably they were afraid of the both as two of them were too strong. But now, as he had no teddy…

'Monsters will eat me.'

'Nobody is going to eat you, Gaara.' was the tired answer, Gaara looked back in the half closed eyes.

'Daddy.'

'What.' Silence. Asking such questions was always a little harder than usual.

'Come with me?...'

The older man sighed, looking at the kid. Such a terrorist he were.

'Okay.' he muttered 'But only this once.'

Gaara nodded, absolutely serious. He was sure that it was only one time. Daddy didn't sleep with him many times after all. Only a bit. This night. And when he finally got his teddy back and they both were in bed with daddy, when he could let the plush lay beside him and curl up to the warm body, he smiled. He had his daddy with him who hugged him and made him feel safe and he had his mommy with him, not far away, somewhere, on a journey. He felt happy.

After a few minutes, he fell asleep. Daichi watched the kid from above, not daring to touch him or stir him as the silence engulfed them and made his listen to the ticking of the clock in another room. He laid his head down on the pillow. Empty, buttoned eyes, stared back at him.

'Sweet nightmares.' he murmured to plush, knowing very well what it represented. But he was not ready to address the matter. Not yet. After some time, his feet numbed down. Then, he also fell asleep. And he didn't dream that night.


	9. 9: Tickets

As expected, Minato was unable to sleep, despite the tiredness he felt. He always had issues with sleep, and normally managed with four or five hours a day, as he almost never slept during night, and maybe the odd nap here and there to supplement it when he was about to collapse because he was too tired. It was three forty in the morning. He thought he slept… Maybe, at least it had been two-something in the morning as he watched the red lights of his alarm clock, so he must have dozed off at some point…

…why did he care if he had managed to sleep or not? He wasn't able to sleep now. And he would simply be unable to fall asleep until he did what he had been kicking around since the Sabaku's had left. Picking up his newly found pair of classes and setting on the coffee machine so it would warm up what he already had prepared, the blond took a few minutes to make himself the coffee to his tastes, then sat down at his laptop and turned on the Mozilla Firefox. He already had the main page for the Akasuna institutions, and then it as just a matter of following the instructions to get to the map. He knew from the directions where they could be, as there was only one institution up north, as for Temari's…

It took him two other cups of coffee before falling asleep on the couch.

#+#+#+#+#+#

He managed to find the address after turning his bag upside down and going through the assorted papers until he found the right one. It took him only a few more minutes to figure he needed two buses to get to the department complex, and about half an hour to actually get there, considering it was Sunday noon and there was hardly any transit. What took him the longest, it seemed, was to get the courage to actually drop the envelop through the mail slot.

In his department, there were several slots right at the door and you had to open them with a key. On his first visit, he hadn't noticed the ones in the old, gritty building Gaara's family lived in, they still had the slots right at the bottom of the door itself. If he wanted to leave the pages, he'd have to slide them through. The problem was how to do it without the people inside noticing, because he didn't want to talk about it. Really, he didn't. At all. Maybe later in the day. Or tomorrow when the man came to pick Gaara, but definitely not now, because it would be too awkward, too sudden, too scary-

'…do you want me to do it?' Minato nearly jumped out of his skin at the shushed voice of his son, who had left the safety of the stairs to come to his back and look at him with an expression clearly stating he was taking way too long for something silly.

'No! Go back to the stairs!' he said urgently, his voice barely a hiss as he shot a nervous look, as if there were agents watching their every move. Maybe snipers and a S.W.A.T team while at it.

'You are taking forever.'

'Naruto!'

'But you are!' his son answered in the same hissed tone, shaking his hand emphatically. He pointed at the stairs until the kid finally turned around and went back to them, and then finally moved down the hallway to stand in front of the door. It was almost. People on Sundays were either sleeping, eating or preparing some sort of brunch. The man had seemed ready to die yesterday, so there was absolutely no reason for him to be awake at this hour,. And if he went to church or temple or whatever, he should still be there. He just had to slip the paper…

He couldn't help but turn around and shoot another terrified look, as if the saffron-haired man would materialize out of the wall possibly holding a baseball bat with nails driven through. All he saw was his son nodding at him excitedly. With a sigh, he managed to cover the last three meters and drop the package through the slot as softly and noiselessly as possible. After which he ran for the stairs, grabbed his son by the hand and ran with him all the way to the top of the building, where he was left panting while and exited Naruto grinned at him and patted his back.

'It was only four floors, daddy.' The little boy said as his father picked him up and sat him on his lap, clutching at him.

'I know.'

'Stop smoking.'

'Maybe after the next book, love.'

'You are gonna keep on writing?'

He made some sound that could be taken either way and just clutched the boy closer, waiting. It would probably be safe to go down in another twenty minutes or so.

Nothing happened for several minutes, and after a while, Minato started to relax despite himself. He supposed because Naruto wasn't scared at all, and his son's moods had this wonderfully soothing effect on him. Somehow, he found himself telling the little blond on his lap about the story again.

'And I think them going back home for the exams would be a good idea, but maybe it would be better to leave bits for the next part? I had a great idea, but I don't know if that would be overdoing it… Either way, it might be too bloody for a sequel…' he sighed, resting his head on the top of Naruto's head, as usual feeling indecisive.

'I think it sounds real good, daddy.' his son said, as usual, not seeming to mind the clinging. 'Those ninja sound real cool, and I like how the girly-boy was super strong.'

'You think so…?' Well, he had simplified the goriest scenes for the kid, but the target of the book was for kids over the age of thirteen, and if he went overboard with the violence his editor would have him correct it, anyway, so there wasn't much to worry about, but the gender confusion might be a little overboard for the sequel, even if had been years since the first book and-

It was then that they heard Gaara's dad yelling for them (well, him), and Minato clutched Naruto to him not at all like Gaara clutched his toy, his whole body tense.

'Mr. Uzumaki! Mr. Uzumaki, it's me… Daichi!...' Of course he was… who else would it be…? Good thing they had waited this much, even thought they would have had time to run to the bus stations if they had left immediately after delivering the package, at least now they were sure- he stopped when he noticed that the body he was holding was trembling.

'…Naru?'

He looked down in a panic, pulling his son closer- he had never meant to scare him this much, he hadn't even thought… His son was laughing. The little blond with faded scars on his cheeks had both hand on his mouth and that odd, mischievous and foxy expression on his face, little shoulders shaking with every giggle he tried to contain.

'…Naruto.' He frowned, giving the kid a small shake for worrying him, and then hugging him to his chest tightly as he oddly enough felt laughter bubbling up his chest. The mood was just contagious. He never ceased to wonder how much like Kushina Naruto was. Everything for her was a joke or an adventure or both, and it was just easy to forget the fact he was a paranoid broken mess with her around. What would he have done without either of them…?

'Shh, daddy…' the little boy put a finger to his mouth and grinned widely. 'We are playing hide and seek.'

And who better to do it with than a little fox?

#+#+#+#+#+#

Clack. That was it. Clack. Nothing more, nothing less. But alas, it was enough to make Kankuro stop from playing with Kuroari and look up from the centre of his bed.

His dolls never made such sounds. Never, even when he played the most quiet way with them or made them jump like crazy. And in this silent morning, every sound could be hearable and distinguished. The chirping of birds outside, the soft breathing of Temari from other room and two steady snores from under him – one, coming from dad's lungs (the thing that just stayed with him after he started smoking and didn't go away when he stopped) and second, from Gaara's as he seemed to be a parrot even in his dreaming (it was good he stopped repeating everything after him once he got his teddy, it was annoying. But some things just stayed). And the small, almost inaudible 'clack'.

Kankuro rose his head from his position, waiting for the sound to become closer or louder – but nothing of such sort took place. More, the sound didn't repeat itself even. And that was more than intriguing for kid his age. Curious, he left his dolls on the top of his bed and climbed down from it, doing it in silence to not wake any of figures sleeping beneath his bed. It wouldn't do him any good, to wake them for no reason.

Lucky Gaara, though. He was forbidden to sleep with dad since Gaara was born, because the little brother was very nervous and woke up every hour or so and didn't let him sleep. He agreed with that, at the beginning – who would want to sleep with such a crybaby? But as Gaara's dreams steadyfied, he started to reconsider the matter – the touch of mom's warm body, her breasts and hair was more than calming and sleeping alone didn't give such opportunities. He tried to ask mom to do that once again, but it was already too late, dad forbade them all to get close to mom because she was very, very unwell and could make them sick too. And then she was gone.

Dad's chest was not so cushy as mom's after that and he had this annoying habit of laying his hands across them and suffocating them all, but when mom was gone – it became the best thing on the world. But big kids didn't sleep with parents. Temari seemed to be proud of the fact all the time, he didn't. He never really felt he was big enough to be called a big grown up. But as dad said so and Temari repeated, he played along.

Clack, clack, where could the _clack_ be?... Could it be that the mouse had finally gotten trapped in the mouse trap he made? He checked all three of them, including the one with fake cheese in the bathroom, but no, all of them were empty. He sighed, disappointed. Maybe it was the color of the cheese?... But he didn't know how to make it more yellow. But maybe because it was not gaining that green shade when cheese was laying out for too long… But if not mouse traps, then what could it be?

He checked the newspapers (they were all in order as he left them), walked around the kitchen (but nothing fell off the drawers) and even bravely peaked into the bloody room (but only a bit – nothing seemed to change there) but he found nothing out of ordinary. And just when he was about to give up, he noticed it. The brown light envelope that lied on the floor of hallway.

Someone has written a letter.

He picked it up, wondering who could do that as it was delivered on Sunday, where postmen didn't usually bring letters, but there was no address on it. Only one big writing 'To Sabaku Daichi'. Which meant dad. And if it was for dad, it probably meant it was even more important and not his to touch. Unless he was the one to deliver it. And since it seemed to be important, dad probably would be more than happy to get it now. He ran back to his room.

'Dad! Dad, wake up!'

Sabaku Daichi slept well. His dreams were nonexistent and Gaara was not shaking him awake. He had a tiring day but the rest was hard and healing, so he embraced it with both arms. And just as he was getting a full handful of that healthiness, the dream bubble popped over his head like a shabon made of soap.

'Dad! Dad, the letter! Someone wrote a letter!' he heard over his ear as he stirred, being touched up by lukewarm hands and climbed up by the owner of the voice. He opened one eye. Kankuro?...

After a moment second, much more warm body stirred and climbed him up, making him feel the weight and waking him up by doing nothing. It was this special ability of his youngest – stare until he stared back. It was an obligation to be made. No exceptions of the rule.

'Whaizzit…' he asked drowsily, looking at them from his position with still dream between his eyelids and cotton in his ears 'Has something happened?...'

'A letter, dad! A letter! Someone wrote it!...'

'Ah, a letter…' he said, not really understanding what was going on as he took it from his middle kid's hand, not noticing that Kankuro used up the occasion to get under the cover and hug himself to him. He even stroked his head back, feeling another one gluing to his side. He hugged Gaara with his elbow as he stared at the brown envelope. A letter…

'Wait, what?...' he said, sitting up on the bed, not really making the kids glue away as they just kept on being hugged to his sides. 'Who brought it, Kankuro?...'

'I dunno.' said the kid shrugging, looking at him with those mini-me eyes. He stared back, rubbing his own head out of drowsiness and glanced at the writing. 'To Sabaku Daichi'. Wait, he knew that handwriting… but from where?...

He opened it with quick determined moves and took out the contents on the bed. Maps. Maps and time schedules and the markings over it – with points that wrote 'ten cents' (which made no sense) and some lines leading straight to Akasuna School Complex. And from there to…

…impossible. He shook the envelope, to get out all the pages out of it and got another print and a small note. He picked it up, reading it out loud. Kids listened quietly like if he was casting a magic spell.

'Time schedules of buses that get straight to the point, the marked things are kiosks with tickets…' he looked at the map. Yes, it would suit the way he remembered from his car '…think about it, let me know if you think it could work…' Signed – Uzumaki Minato & Naruto (with squiggly lines).

'What does it reads there?' said Gaara, pointing at Naruto's name, but he didn't listen to him, pushing the kids away and getting out of the bed.

'Kankuro, how long it has been since you found the letter?'

'Dunno…' said his first son 'Maybe a few minutes?...'

'Good. Stay here!' he said, running out of the room while trying to get on his mules and opening the exit doors with one hand as in the second he still held the note. The kids shouted the agreement at him, though he didn't really pay attention to that as the locker has clicked, announcing the success of his doings. So he opened the doors and ran out of his house, running down the stairway until he reached the next door and ran out on the chilly morning in pajamas only, searching for the blond.

But with no effect. He turned left and right, not spotting anything that looked like a yellow tuff of hair and ran forward, expecting to meet them on the way – they couldn't have gone very far, right?

'Mr. Uzumaki!' he called out, hoping to get attention of the blond who probably was somewhere close but hiding from his gaze 'Mr. Uzumaki, it's me… Daichi!...'

But all in vain. After fifteen minutes of senseless running, he came back to his house, all chilled out and a little wet as the puddles on the ground didn't dry up yet and he kept on running without looking where he was stepping. He closed the door and let the note fall on the table as he went to the kitchen to fetch himself a glass of water after such running. Now that was something to think about…

That was a strange gesture. Not bad, but a little… weird. He would have never expected for the blonde to come to his house and get him such things on Sunday, the day after they talked. Especially after looking so unhealthy the day before. Was he doing it well? Could it be that Minato was a sociopath who slowly spiraled down until he was inside someone else's family and called someone's kids his own? He lived almost alone. And with big money. Now that he thought of it, the things he had in there were a little too expensive for what he said he were doing… as far as he remembered the salary of an average translator was not as big as one's who could buy such things.

What did he know about the blond after all?

Sure, the gesture was nice and how good it would be to know that his kids were fed and taken care of after the school, especially by someone like Minato, but… He wasn't sure now.

'Daddy?'

He looked down. Ah, there she was. A sleeping beauty of the house. Just got up and had this sleepy face that reminded him of Karura so much. Back in times it could hurt him, but now it was just a little sad, but sweet image. It meant Temari was a result of love between him and the woman he married.

'Can I have some water?...' asked the said result and didn't protest when he gave her his own cup, drinking up what was left. He looked at the clock. As crazy as it was, it couldn't be lying – it showed ten past ten a.m. Far too early for the tiredness he felt and for kids to be up. Without a word, he took Temari with him (along with the cup from which she drank still) and got her to the boys' room where Kankuro and Gaara still sat on the redheads bed, looking through the maps and markings with interest. That also picked up interest of Temari as she gave him the cup and climbed up to the bed to look at the papers.

With a sigh, he let the glass stand on the night table and took the papers from them, even despite their protests as the new object brought new spirit of searching for the hidden gold of pirates (as he heard from their talkings). He ruffled Kankuro's head as he climbed up the bed with them and covered himself.

'I'll show them to you again, but later.' he promised, feeling the nice warmth coming back to him 'Now, be quiet and let me rest a bit. It's Sunday. Go play quietly in the other room or listen to radio in kitchen, but not too loud, because I need to rest…'

He closed his eyes, hiding his face in the pillow and waited for the kids to move out from bed. But neither of them moved. He opened one eye.

'What is it?' he asked looking at indecisive faces of Temari and Kankuro 'I said you can turn on the radio…'

'Can't we stay here?' He blinked.

'Aren't you rested already?...'

'Not much.'

'I could sleep some more.'

'Please, daddy…'

He looked at Gaara, who muttered the last sentence, looking at him with big green eyes from behind the teddy and he sighed. Kids.

'Okay, okay.' he said, lifting the cover and letting his kids crawl under it Gaara has immediately glued himself to his side just like before that night, and Kankuro almost copied his gesture, though he didn't dare to be just as needy. Temari, on top of him, seemed to gain weight yet again, even when she was not eating much as of lately. Kids grew fast after all.

'Be quiet and let me rest, okay?'

They all nodded, looking at him with those childish eyes, so he looked around, looking into every pair of them, until he closed his own and let himself rest. Kids loosened up after a few moments, curling up closer and soon, all three of them were away in Morpheus lands. Safe.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'Do you think he is asleep?'

'He can't be. It's already past first p.m.'

'But his eyes are closed.'

'Do you think he died?'

'No! Daddy, don't die, daddy wake up!'

Daichi woke up being roughly pushed by his side by a panicked Temari, just when he was about to decide this day started almost too peacefully for his usual standards. Then he decided he was wrong. And when was in the middle of grumbling at all of them as they stood there, looking at him like if he actually rose from the dead, he remembered the letter and decided it actually started a little too nervously. He looked at the clock.

Ah. Five past first p.m. Ideal time for eating the soup he didn't have, meat he didn't bring and dessert that didn't exist. Just perfect. After washing his face and brushing his teeth with toothbrush (thankfully, he still had the new tube of paste in the drawer) he came out, turning on the radio for Kankuro and letting kids search through the cupboards in searching for anything edible to eat (it was amazing what they could find while he, even if he searched for days, couldn't) and dialed the number to the blond. Thank gods, his kid stole ('bought' as he kept repeating) Inuzuka's cell phone. It was nothing good to hold it by himself, but he was reluctant in giving it back – without it they would be cut off the communication.

And besides, first p.m. was probably quite decent time to call a neighbor to ask for a few things. Like weather, anonymous letters of good charity send through mail on Sunday morning, how's health, messages left on early morning on his doormat, if the pipes worked right, map with signs scribbled on it, the view point on the result of yesterday's football match he didn't watch… Oh, did he mention the letter he got this morning? Yes, exactly. Without superfluous words he dialed the number and waited. Beep. Beep. Beep…

Naruto looked around his father's backpack until he caught the vibrating little blue cell, looking in the kitchen's direction and to his oblivious father, who seemed to have turned peeling an eggplant into a life or dead mission. How come he heard it from his own room and his father didn't? he was probably planning something up. The older blond was always off into his little world when inspiration hit him, and if the piling papers being printed, read and quickly corrected were anything to go by, Minato was at his cusp.

'Daaad…?' Nothing. If anyone had expected that to prepare parmesan eggplant would be turned into a task worthy of a NASA scientist, well… '…DADDY!' His father jumped, the half-peeled vegetable falling from his hands despite two attempts to catch it mid-flight and fell on the floor.

'What?' he asked in a panicked tone, turning to stare at his mini-me at the door, taking a moment to double check for broken bones, missing limbs and large amounts of blood before his heart managed to slowly crawl down his throat. 'What is it?'

'The phone's been ringing for a while, you should keep it on you, daddy.' The little boy said, picking the half peeled vegetable and tip toeing up to drop it in the sink, then giving his father the ringing phone and using the handles of the drawers to hoist himself up enough to turn the water on, hanging from the edge of the sink as he patted the eggplant to clean it.

Minato was once again alternatively horrified and amazed at the ability Naruto had to climb up potentially lethal surface. Not that the sink was, but as easily as he got there, he could go up to the stove. He let him there for now, though, keeping an eye as he rubbed the half-peeled eggplant and opened the door, surprised at the name that appeared on the screen.

'Yes…?'

'Goode afternoon, Mr. Uzumaki, good to hear you made it home safely.' Creaked in the phone with digitalized voice. 'I hope I'm not interrupting anything important?...' The saffron haired man smiled, reopening the envelope yet again and looking at the maps. They really were done with precision and probably the best way of the shortest and safest ideas for the small kids to travel. He knew, because h recognized the signs and colors on the digitalized paper. They had the same thing in office where there was connection with interweb. 'Because I believe my problem needs some discussion as well and I'd rather not wait with it.'

'Good afternoon.' The older blond replied, a slightly confused smile on his lips as he wondered why the man had taken so long in calling. Not that he minded, in the time he had between their adventure and getting back home he had calmed quite a bit, thanks to Naruto's uplifting mood, and after his daily pill, he really felt a lot better than the mass of nerves he had been. Now he just felt rather silly about what he had done, but understood he wouldn't have been able to act any other way. At least the man didn't sound mad. And he had told him to call him to discuss it.

'Not really, I just started lunch for my termite…' pushing the little boy gently away and making him drop to the floor, he finished cleaning the eggplant and resumed peeling it, keeping the cell against his ear by pressing his shoulder up. 'I'm sorry for meddling like that, but I remembered about it this morning, and as I needed to go withdraw a few books from the library, I thought I should pass by. I thought you would be sleeping.' It was a very reasonable lie. The library was only about seven blocks from the Sabaku's house, and considering where he lived, he would need to take the green line of the bus to get there either way.

Daichi hesitated for a moment. Library? They had a library somewhere around his house? He had so little time to live that he barely looked around his own house. But now he remembered the landlord speaking something about it…

'Thanks for a thought. I wasn't, really.' he muttered, swallowing his saliva in his mouth, feeling how all went a little too dry there. He had no idea how to handle such situation. Had they got themselves a stalker or a guardian angel or… he really didn't know if there was any way to point at any possible answer 'But I… appreciate the gesture. Though I'm afraid my kids live a little too far away to make such a journey by themselves.'

There. Let's see how the blond would react to that.

Minato nodded absently, making a face when that caused him to almost lose the cell and had to fight to readjust it in place.

'I was wondering about that, but I guess you are right…' thought he couldn't help feeling funny about thinking that he deemed them old enough to stay on their own without any sort of supervision. '…I'm sorry, it really wasn't my place. I just felt a little worried about thinking about them alone all day. I know you work a lot. I'm sorry.'

Daichi smiled at the answer. Yes, it sounded good enough for him. But still, blond's act was pinpointing something more at this point of life. You didn't just go and get through the whole town just to leave such envelope in somebody's flat. So either blond was hopelessly romantic or unconsciously paranoid. Or scared of him. Which sounded funny, because if anything, it was blond's wealth that made him usually look down and not up.

'When they're home, at least I'm sure they're not being taken to another state and making underage porno videos for perverted people on the internet.' he said, letting the papers fall on the table.

'Dad, I found a potato!'

'That's good, Temari.' He said, covering the speaker t not share such things on a phone with anyone outside the family circle '…so I'm afraid…'

'Dad.'

He looked down at the serious stubborn face with surprise. It was first time Gaara called him anything else but 'daddy.' He blinked. Gaara didn't even move an inch.

'Teddy says he wants all of us to go.' He muttered, looking at him like if he was daring him. Daichi frowned.

'Gaara…' he started, but the redhead immediately moved closer, making a saddened face.

'Daddy…' Daichi tsked 'Mommy says it's good for us.'

Oh, there we go again. He moved away from the kid, almost making him lose his balance and walked up to the window.

'…I'm afraid Kankuro and Temari are too young to travel alone from such faraway places to your home alone so I must refuse, I'm sor-' He stopped, looking down again. This time three pairs of eyes were staring at him with this annoying stubbornity – 'please daddy, pretty please, or else…' kind of. He opened his mouth.

'Daddy!'

'Dad!'

'No!' …and it seemed he was not allowed to even speak anymore. He sighed. Now he was beginning to lose his humor. And that was not pretty.

'_When they're home, at least I'm sure they're not being taken to another state and making underage porno videos for perverted people on the internet.'_ There was about one or two seconds of pause at that, and then the sound of the cell phone nosily falling on the floor. Minato stared at it as if I had turned into a particularly leggy and hairy kind of bug.

'Daddy…?' Naruto was staring at his father worriedly, attracted by the noise of the device hitting the ground. Minato stared at it, then at his son.

That's what the man thought of him… That's what he had sounded like? Of course that's what he had sounded like! How else would anyone sound- 'Why don't you live your tiny, delicious kids with me the whole day long, you don't know me, but I'm a perfectly trustworthy stranger, hur hur hur, and while you are at it, why not dress them up in edible underwear?'

He grabbed the cell phone again, nails hitting the linoleum painfully, though not breaking.

'I'm sorry.' he rasped, his breath unusually fast. 'I'm so sorry- I-I didn't think- I never meant—' of course he hadn't. But God, what was he, stupid? Would he had left his son with a stranger that showed out of nowhere like that? What planet did he live in? He felt stupid. Stupid and embarrassed and dirty and- 'I'm sorry, please, forget what I did, I won't meddle anymore.'

He tried to turn the call off, but he couldn't hit the right button. At the failed third try, he closed it.

Daichi winced. Three pairs of eyes stared at him with such stubbornness he knew that this wouldn't end well if he made them loose the opportunity to go to Uzumakis again. He knew why – the food and the playing was all they lacked in their empty life and even if they were siblings with small years difference, nobody could provide much if it was only a circle of them. Family was family, but friends were friends. He knew that very well. But then, security was much more important than that.

He knew it was a little exaggeration from his side – if the blond wanted to use them, he would have never gone to help Gaara in the situation he was in two days ago. People were not that good and the coldness reached many of those who didn't care. If the blonde wouldn't care – Gaara would be left home bleeding until he would get back there. But then, the whole thing was just… a little strange. Why didn't he tell him about it? He was about to ask it, shunning the stares down with turning his back to them, but when he closed the dial to his ear… Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…

…was all he heard. What?... Why did he reconnect? He said something about being sorry, as he heard, but he was too distracted with kids to notice and then there was only signal. He slowly closed the phone. So, it seemed we get back to the bad, old plan A. Everyone on his head. He turned to the kids.

'He changed his mind.' he said curtly, giving the phone to kids to inspect it and he went to the kitchen to prepare the found potato. Good they weren't all that hungry after the yesterday's filling. Though he was pretty sure that the digested food in kids stomachs was probably long gone. But at least they were starting with a carte blanche. It was easier to start counting down the days till getting the payment from the middle of the month instead of the beginning. He looked at the clock.

And it was about time to give Gaara his medicine too. With one swift move he tossed the potato into boiling water and looked at the kids, searching for the vial with drops.

'Tomorrow we will be doing everything like always. Be sure to be ready to be up before six. You know the drill.' The three of them nodded reluctantly, but it was visible they were not in the best humor. But there was nothing to do about it now. The life had to go on. Just like the drops had to go out from the bottle. But at least drops were free…

The next day started with a routine he knew better than he knew the map of this town. He was sure of it like he was sure there was almost nothing in his wallet and without opening his eyes he could count down what would happen. Tuesdays were Tuesdays, there was no unoriginal Wednesdays. Thursdays were more surprising than anything (mostly because of new schedule on the streets when it came to changing lights) and Fridays were always boring like a carousel on vertigo, but Mondays were stale like a pile of bricks. They never changed.

Like here – he heard the struggling of Kankuro on his bed as he tried to dress up in the darkness and the nervous breathing of Gaara who hadn't slept for most part of the night and was having an unpleasant dream. Temari was too far away. This would last for few minutes. Then the clock would ring. -Rrring!- There. Now Kankuro would be startled that he didn't manage on dressing up quick enough and grumpy he had to do it anyway and go to school. Temari would get up in an instance and march to boys' room, switching the light despite Kankuro's state and…

'Hey! Get out, I'm naked!'

'I'm your sister, dummy.'

'That doesn't make you any less girl than you are! Get out of our room! Get out, now!'

'I will get out when I'll get my underwear.'

'Why don't you just take it the day before? You do it just to get in and peek at boys parts!'

'What are you talking about, stupid? I don't have to peek on you to know how boy's parts look like, I washed Gaara before-aah!'

'You saw! You saw me naked!'

'It's because you didn't cover yourself up!'

'How am I supposed to dress up under the cover? You're stupid!'

'You're perverted! You're naked in the presence of girl!'

'You just said you're my sister! I didn't invite you in! You're the perverted one!'

'No, you are!'

'You are!'

'You are the one!'

'You ar-'

'Mooommyyy!'

...and there was the end of his rest as the half woken up Gaara would immediately start crying and make the other kids panicked and startled. If he would ignore him, the other kids wouldn't get dress up in time trying to calm the redhead down and they would not do it even as he would coddle him. On other days he was there first to wake up Gaara, which never turned into a crying fit, but the arguments of Kankuro and Temari over his head usually resulted in such bawling. He tried to not make it happen a few times, but somehow it always ended like that, even if the kids would just securely do everything as planned on other days. Almost like if Gaara had planned to wake up crying on Monday just to get a hug. And, knowing him, that was more than possible.

With a tired sigh, he got up from the bed to get into the kid's room and lay on the other bed for another few minutes, just hugging the redhead as the words never worked here and all he seemed to want was to be close. He always felt uncomfortable as Kankuro and Temari were always watching his back then, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't spoil all of them – he had enough of problems with one fragile kid already.

And besides, with all of them on bed it wouldn't be as restful as it was only with two. Because he was already used to sleeping with the kid on his own bed, so such a position was just another moment for closing his eyes. Once the kid calmed down enough to get up – he hadn't got such occasion till the very late evening at the end of the day. So he used it well.

After that, everything went as planned – no food, no socks, no peace, no working clock and panic again, kids being already too late, him being already too late and all of them running out too late just to find out that the car was not starting after whole day of standing not used and losing another fifteen minutes for warming up the radiator. Then there was traffic jam, Temari being a little late, Kankuro being more late, Gaara not having the 'late-not late' schedule and him being largely late for usual standards but not so bad for his own standards of lateness.

Only that he was on black list and he couldn't be late at all. Thankfully, his boss and half of people in the room were also not present. The season of flu was starting to reap the weaker to their bed. It was good, of course, but then it was not good at all as he remembered he hadn't bought vaccine for kids and it was yet another thing to have laying around his head and be worried about. As he sat down behind his desk, he looked at himself in the faint image of himself in the dull surface of the stapler. How come he was not sporting a massive amount of grey hair yet, he had no idea.

Then the long day of hard work would finally begin. And would last forever. But now at least he was sure, that his kids were in the secured, places, watched by the people who would mean no harm to them (except Mr. Gekkou, as Kankuro said, but he doubted that Hayate-sensei was doing everything on purpose – if anything, he was probably bitter at life for his never-ending sickness). So he could work. In peace.

Temari didn't think like her daddy.

Rarely, of course, but still. Her day at school was spent like usual – she raised her hand when she knew the answer and raised it higher when other people also knew it and was chosen to do it or not. Usually it was nothing big, in her eyes everyone were equal and everyone could answer the questions if the teacher let them – there was no competition there. When she knew, she knew, so it was all right. Except for the time where pineapple head knew it too.

Then she raised her hand twice as high and when he was chosen to answer the question, she didn't stop on standing up from the table just to be noticed above everyone – even when she was said to not to do that. Maki-sensei already knew about the strange competition thing that was going on between them, so when she chose Shikamaru (that was the name of pineapple head, but to her it didn't suit him as much as what she called him) she also chose her to answer the question. And then it turned into the brave race for the winning – for her, as the boy usually didn't even try to think, he just wrote on the blackboard when she had to stop and think. Almost like if she had the computer in his head or something. But she couldn't lose.

Not because it was a big thing. It didn't even start from anything big. At least that what Kankuro said (but he was stupid) and also Gaara (but he was a baby) and Sakura and Tenten too (but they knew nothing). Because it was a thing of a honor.

She had to show him, she was much more capable of being better than him in anything as a girl, than he could be. Because it was so, so embarrassing when she had the skirt lose that button on the first day of school and she had to hold it up to not let everyone see her panties, but then when she tripped once and let go of the schoolbag she was barely holding and couldn't get it on without holding it up he showed up and somehow figured it out and took her bag and held it for her for whole day after every lesson even if she said she could do it alone when she really couldn't and he seemed to know that and…

Hinata said it was kind of cute, but what could she know. Her cousin carried her bag with her because he was her family and for that he cared for her. And that lazy boy who said 'it was too troublesome to let her carry her own bag for she was a girl and he was a boy and it was boy's duty to help a girl' was not a family and he didn't have to do that at all, reducing her to little, helpless girlified girly girl!... She had to show him she was better than him. That she could do without such a boy. Or any boy at all.

She wrote the solution first, as she was successful this time, but he didn't seem to be crushed by the fact she won. More, he just looked at her part of the blackboard with something akin to surprise and turned to her mumbling something about girls being 'too troublesome'. Somehow, she didn't feel victorious even as she did smile at the teacher who praised her. Next time she would have to be quick enough to tell a solution of his side of blackboard too.

Alas, there was next time, but she lost to him then as he just explained everything before he got closer to the equation. She wanted to take revenge after that, but then the bell rang and it was the end of her day in school. Which meant long sitting in club-room or library. Daddy was always very late on Mondays. That, or… She took her schoolbag in her hands, opening it and rummaging through it, until she took out the crumpled sheets of papers out. The map of the town with stark naked signs of the bus stops and kiosks…

She could either sit in the library and buy herself a dry bun in the school's cafeteria, or she could not buy anything and got to the signed dot on the map and get a ticket and…

…with gods' help she would be in the place after at least forty minutes, as it wrote on the map. She knew it would mean disobeying the rules and getting herself in danger as in case of getting lost – nobody would know where she was, including herself. And policemen were not always everywhere ready to help such a girl like her.

But then, she already broke the rules with taking the map form the envelope when the rest of her family was desperately trying to find the green sock with yellow teddy bears for Gaara who just sat on bed in one and didn't realize that through the whole time he was sitting on the desired piece of clothing until daddy would move him aside to look behind the bed.

And also, that would make her look bad in daddy's eyes as she was the one to not get Gaara safe and her duty was to be a good girl when the boys didn't know when to be good for that she was the oldest from them all. But then, if this wouldn't happen then nothing would ever change, she was sure of it. And she desperately wanted the situation to change. And why not with the blonds - they were nice and all. She didn't understand why daddy suddenly got so reluctant. But daddy was always a little too insecure and needed a push, as mommy said. And if anything, she knew that the last person on this world to be wrong was her mommy.

So, when she came out of the building, she didn't head to the dimly lighted room with books and toys, but to the green booth on the lively side of the fence. The money was more than enough for two tickets. Just enough for her and Kankuro. Because it was obvious that the map lead to the another building in district of Akasuna territory and the ticket she had was not for exact vehicle but for time – she had an hour from the moment she checked it. That would be more than enough for her to grab Kankuro and get him on another line to get to their destination.

And as she thought, she was not wrong. The bus didn't seem to be as scary as she thought it might be, nobody tried talking to her or taking her anywhere so she just rode it till the low female voice announced the 'Pinocchio Street' and she could get out. Much to her surprise, almost tripping on Kankuro. With a ticket in his hand.

'What are you doing here?' she asked, ash he grabbed her and get them on the bus she just hopped out of 'How?...'

'I bought it.' he said, shrugging and readjusting his bag that belonged to her when she was younger. '…like usual, don't ask.'

She was about to ask that, but she shut her mouth. Nobody really knew how he got his money-less or too-high-price-less shopping go inside this school but it was probably all having some connection with the fact he was nonstop carving in wood and nobody in home really saw what he did, beside those three yucky monsters he kept on getting everywhere with him. Even now, the little Karasu's head was still visible from insides of his bag. Eew.

'But how did you know I was going to arrive for you in this bus?' Kankuro laughed out loud, checking his ticket in the yellow beeping machine. She frowned. Why was he laughing at her? 'Silly Temari, I didn't know.' he said, getting the paper inside his pockets and looking at her. He was again all smeared with those purple lines from that crayon he used for who knows what in this school he went to 'I just copied the map at night when nobody was looking and decided to go to the point shown on there by myself.'

'And you didn't want to get me with you?'

'Didn't think you would agree to break a rule.' She pouted at him, but she knew he was right, so as the new station was announced, her mood was gone like if it wasn't ever there. They had to be careful. Because they never did something like that. They get out at the Hashirama's Street and crossed the Great Waterfall's Boulevard as it was signed on the map, just to get into the next bus in the nick of time. This time it was much more stuffed than the one before and they had to keep close to not be pushed out of it or to be parted. After another few stations they finally reached the Tail's Street, which was already familiar to them and that was signed as the end of their journey.

Well, almost – they had to reach then number nine of the whole place. But that was nothing big as every house was already numbered. After a few minutes of walking, they finally reached the known building. It looked just as it was looking at the very early part of the day and the very late too. Astounding. Nothing like their own old block of flats at the dangerous part of the town. They looked at each other. There was no getting back now. Kankuro, being the more courageous one, stepped on his toes and ringed the bell. And then, with the hearts in their throats, pounding a little too loud and clammy hands, they stood in the silent breezy weather, looking at the door – and waited.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Monday was a weird day. Because after that call, Sunday sucked, bad. Daddy, who after the initial scare had gotten into one of his rare really, really good moods had been okay and perfectly happy until The Call. And not just because parmesan eggplant, which Naruto didn't really like or dislike, but Minato loved, he was happy because he felt good about what he had done and that was a really, really rare thing. Then The Call happened and ruined everything.

He knew they had moved because Calls had happened. Lots of Calls (Calls with big C's, because they were different from normal calls normal people got) and they always scared his daddy enough to get him screaming and calling Ero-Sennin and Ibiki-san and having the other pills... That's why the phone was over the refrigerator now. He wasn't supposed to pick it up, even though he could reach it. His daddy had told him that if anything ever happened, he should call him on his cell phone and never give that one.

He wasn't sure what the 'anything' could be, but he just nodded and didn't ask, because if his daddy got too nervous he'd want to have the other pills and he had told him to never let him do that, just the ones his sikogist gave him so he wouldn't be sad… but even after yesterday's sad pills his daddy had been sad. Really, really sad, and he'd even had two of them. He hadn't taken two in a while, not since they had moved. Not that it was bad, two sad pills a day if he was really sad wasn't bad, even Anko and Ero-Sennin had told him so, but he hadn't been that sad in a while and The Call was at fault, even if there hadn't been yelling this time… So it couldn't be the 811 woman.

His daddy hadn't slept, either, because while it was normal he'd still be wearing the same clothes from the previous days when he woke him up, it wasn't nearly as wrinkled as when his daddy fell asleep in the couch. And he'd made food, not just breakfast. He'd cooked food, which wasn't really rare, as he usually froze stuff so he could use it in lunch and dinner's through the week, but he never did it in the mornings, because that's when his daddy was the most sleepy. He usually did it in the afternoons while he played with Gaara.

Gaara… His daddy had Gaara's dad cell phone number in his cell. He knew because he had heard them talk before.

Those were the things Naruto was mulling about that morning at kinder, drawing spirals on a paper while they waited for the kids that were always late to get there so they could start telling them what to do, and he was so distracted by his own thoughts that he didn't notice when Gaara got there, which was the reason he didn't run to give him a hug as he usually did.

Gaara entered the kindergarten without expecting anything weird. More, he expected everything to be more than usual, because he had his green socks with yellow teddy on his legs, and that was more than sign of luck. Especially when he also had his teddy with him (and he always did). However, it didn't happen just as he expected. Just when he entered, many kids looked at him strangely and after he made a few steps, he was suddenly surrounded by many kids who seemed to be very curious about his state. He blinked, looking at them.

'Gaara-san? What do you have here, Gaara-san?' asked in a quick speed the braided boy, pointing at his forehead. Other kids looked at it also. He patted it.

'Ah, it's nothing. I've got an ouchie.' he said, making sure it was not going to slide down, The pale boy smiled at him.

'Has it happened when you were making pee-pee?'

Other kids laughed. Gaara didn't see anything funny in it though.

'It happened when I tried to reach the book about mousie.' he said with serious face. The pale boy didn't change his mimic though.

'But I bet that mousie had a wee-wee.' Gaara shrugged. Why would it matter if the mousie had a wee-wee? He didn't think animals had any anyway. He looked around, searching for the usual blond haired kid, but when he didn't saw him in the circle, he moved forward until he spotted him in the corner. Leaving the curious boys in the place he stepped closer and plopped down on the other side of drawing, looking at Naruto.

'Hello.'

Naruto finally snapped out of the trance where he was drawing swirly suns with swirly eyes and swirly mouths, that looked more like a monster than anything else, but that was okay because he had made him and monsters didn't eat their makers- an realized his best friend was right in front of him, so he smiled at him.

'Hi, Gaara.'

Gaara smiled back at him, propping his teddy higher so he could also see what was on the paper and looked down.

'What are you drawin'?'

'Nightmare.' The boy crumpled the paper, not wanting anything to do with it, and propped himself into a sitting position, staring at the older boy seriously for several moments. Gaara looked a little sick, so he probably hadn't slept very well again. Maybe because of the call too, and daddy had said… he'd said…

'It doesn't look like one.' Because it looked like strange things he couldn't imagine dreaming about as he never really had such dreams – his nightmares were of completely other kind, with him not having anyone at all and being left alone. But maybe Naruto dreamed about something else… Asuma-teach always said that everyone were a little different so probably they dreamed different dreams too. He looked at Naruto. He didn't seem to be very happy as usual.

'Are you coming home today?'

'Why wouldn't I come home?' he asked. Naruto made strange questions.

'Daddy said you might not and told Asuma-teach to call your daddy to ask later.' the blond said, expression worried. 'Is it because your daddy didn't like my house?'

Gaara blinked, looking up, then down. Daddy didn't seem to dislike Naruto's house, but then, he didn't seem to like it very much too… but daddy never spoke too much about anything. He didn't really remember as he was trying to get his attention more than look if he liked being there. But then, after getting that strange envelope he seemed to be very vivid, which didn't happen very often and then he wanted to cancel their visits, but Naruto's dad turned off the phone…

'Daddy said your daddy changed his mind.' he said truthfully, playing with plushy paws of his teddy 'I don't know what does it mean, but he didn't seem to be very happy when he called.'

'So it was your dad!' Naruto suddenly shot up, eyes narrowed in anger. 'His Call! He was the one that messed everything up! It's his fault my daddy is sad again!'

Gaara jerked back, losing his balance as he let go of the teddy and stared at the blond with widened eyes. He didn't understand such reaction in one a bit.

'My daddy said it was your daddy who changed his mind.' he repeated dumbly, not knowing what to say. To him it made very little sense in whole, and now even less. 'Does that mean he decided to be sad?'

'My daddy wasn't sad until he met yours! He was okay and because of him he's sad again, and it's not his fault!' Naruto wasn't angry *at* Gaara, but it didn't look like it from the way he was behaving. 'My daddy took stuff to your house so your daddy would leave your brother and sister with us but then he called and messed him up again! Now dad maybe will want to move again!'

Gaara just sat on the floor, looking at the blond in silence. He didn't see blond being sad when he saw him, but maybe Naruto saw something he couldn't? Many people said his daddy was a cruel man, but he knew better because when he hugged him, he was warm and the best in whole world. So maybe Naruto's dad was sad when nobody saw? But why would he be sad because of daddy? Daddy didn't seem to dislike the blonde man…

'I don't want you to move.' he said in a small voice. He didn't understand why would the man want to move because of such a call that was done – where daddy was not even shouting, but if Naruto said so…

'Daddy…' he searched for words, trying to find anything that could describe the strange situation where the older man just suddenly ran out of the flat and when he came back, the matter was not talked anymore. But he didn't find any 'Daddy… just didn't understand.'

It was more like he didn't understand, but maybe, just maybe, if he didn't then maybe daddy didn't too? Even if he always knew what was best.

The blond's aggressive stance slowly changed to one of sadness, just staring at the redhead in the floor, before his attention was called around by strange whisperings- the usual stupid form always were looking at them and whispering, so he shook a fist in their general direction. When he looked back at the redhead, he just sighed and sat down on the floor in front of him.

'I don't want to move away, either. You are my best friend, and if I move, I won't see you at school anymore.'

Gaara nodded, saddening with every passing second. He didn't want Naruto to move away either. He never had such a friend before and he wouldn't want him to go away, like mommy. Mommy was taking very, very long before coming back and not that he couldn't wait, but it was… long. And if Naruto was to go away for the same longness that would be also very long and very, very sad, because he wouldn't have anyone. And having pictures in teddy was not as nice as having real personas near at all.

'I don't want you to not see you anymore.' he muttered with saddened voice and crawled over to hug Naruto. Maybe if he held onto him very, very tight and just wouldn't let go, Naruto wouldn't go away? And if he did at least he would take him there and show him the way so he could meet him somehow.

'You're my best friend too.'

When it appeared than the blond and redhead had decided not to jump for each other's scalps like the last time, the rest of the kids quickly lost interest on the pair and went back to playing while the teacher finished speaking with one of the parents that had showed late. Naruto just hugged Gaara and stroked his head over the bandage lightly.

'Do your stitches hurt?' he asked, inspecting the bandage as if he could get to see through it if he concentrated hard enough.

'Not much.' It did hurt a little and it was a little annoying when he tried to sleep, but lack of sleep was nothing unusual to him, so he didn't count that up as anything important in that matter. However, he did like how Naruto patted him on the head. Any kind of body-close caress was a good one for him, as long as it was not hurting him. In exchange, he moved his hands over Naruto's back lightly, like If he was trying to pet a furry animal. He didn't have much experience in that though, because he stroked a stray cat maybe twice and the same amount of dogs at the same time. Kankuro's friend had a doggie, but that doggie didn't let him touch itself. So he tried to do the best as he could, knowing he couldn't do it too well. 'Why would your daddy want to move away now?'

'Because If he gets too sad, he'll get scared. That's why we left home and came here.' Naruto looked at the teacher, who was finally calling up rounds to go do something with some pastel colored dough, though he made no move to let go of Gaara or move towards the group. 'I don't want my daddy to be sad anymore. He was really sad before we left.'

Gaara looked at Naruto, then turned his head to look at the teacher, not really ungluing his head from the warm body underneath . What was Naruto saying was far more interesting than another attempt at drawing things.

'My daddy is sad too, but he doesn't move away.' he said consolingly, seeing how the teach clapped his hands to move them all together in one circle and how another one noticed them not moving and started coming closer 'We did move once, but I don't know why. Why would your daddy be scared or sad? You have nice home.'

'Sometimes he gets bad calls. From bad people.' The other boy snuggled against the redhead. 'But I don't think she knows we moved. She's never called where we are.'

'Why can't you tell her to not call you back then?' The redhead didn't move, though his eyes observed the man in silence. He didn't really like him. He was too pale to not be ghost and yet, he still was alive. That was too creepy to like him.

'What do they want from you?'

'Come on, kids-s, move' said the older male, crouching in front of them and holding out a hand 'We are going to draw the family portrait. Don't you want to draw you mommies and daddies?' Gaara didn't respond, looking at the hand. It was all white too. He could do that, but then, he could also not do that. It wouldn't make much difference if he did draw them.

The blond sighed, finally letting go of the arms he had wrapped around the smaller boy and moved up, offering him a hand.

'Let's go draw, maybe a picture will make daddy happy again…' But he doubted it. When daddy got really sad, it took very big things to get him out of it. As for if Gaara would be coming home or not… Well, he would know, right?


	10. 10: Closet

That morning when they arrived at school, a slightly pale Uzumaki Minato had spent a few minutes making sure he hadn't forgotten anything in his son's backpack, and then told the teacher something about Gaara's father not really having told him if he was supposed to take Gaara home that day, which Asuma found weird, as the man had explicitly told them one morning that until further indications were made, Naruto's father had full permission to taking his son after classes. A good thing, too, as the kid had, until then, been left to his own devices for about four hours until the man was able to pass by.

He even had the signed paper somewhere… Odd, but the older blond looked slightly sick, so he hadn't thought much about it. He limited himself to give a call at Sabaku's job during lunch break to make sure they had permission. Better to be safe than sorry.

The phone rang. Long. Hard. Avid. And so annoyingly loud, that Yura finally snapped and shouted.

'Daichi, telephone!'

There was an unspoken wall between them since the morning and he did not dare to break it as he knew he was the cause of it – or rather, it was the unfortunate spin of luck that showered him and not the man. But as the phone just started rasping (he could swear he heard it choke) he could not ignore it any longer. He had a peaceful break and it was supposed to stay that way. Breaks were for peace.

And how could Daichi not recognize or hear that object after working there for so long? He was only in another room for gods' sake!

'Coming.' muttered the other man, getting out of the another room, holding up some kind of board in his hands. He, as usual, worked without a break at all. No wonder, since he was on back list. 'Hello?'

What now. He didn't have time or head for any calls now. People always called during that break. Almost like if they thought he had time then.

'Good afternoon, Sabaku-san.' the kinder teacher said, patting his pockets for a cigarette as he tried to remember in which one had it ended this time. 'Sorry to interrupt, but Uzumaki-san told us we should call you to verify if Gaara can go with him today.'

Daichi frowned. Wait a second, what was this all about?...

'What… I said before that I…' he stopped, searching for informations in his head. He agreed before once and for all of Gaara to be taken with Minato always after the end of the schedules, he remembered that… of course, he became more wary of the blond, as he seemed to be more and more strange, but up until now nothing bad has happened (yet) but he couldn't really choose as he had no alternative. He opposed for other kids to be taken and there was always a problem of Gaara being the most fragile one, but… he would be probably sitting in this work today till the dawn. But then, why did the blond reconnect? Was it because he guessed his identity? But then why he wanted to take Gaara and asked him for permission?

If he wanted to do anything bad he wouldn't ask him that, right?... It would be better if he could speak to him personally now. He looked at the board. He had so many things to do still… He could give him one more chance. That would also be a good reason to get to his home and talk about his strange behavior too. '…I said before what I think about it, right? Please, don't make me repeat myself.'

'Yes, we know and have your permission, but Uzumaki-san told us we should verify with you either way.' The man said, not seeming to care about the mildly rude treatment as he had found his cigarettes. Now the matter came with finding the lighter. 'We need to check, school's policy and all that.'

'I understand, but I'm a busy man.' The redhead said, nodding to the worker that looked at him from the corner, showing for him to leave the phone and come to him right now. 'As I said, Gaara can be picked up by Mr. Uzumaki. But if you see anything suspici- I said I'm coming!'

'Then hurry up, we don't have all day!'

'Gods dammit- I have to go, I'm sorry. Take care of my kid or I won't care what would happen to me once I would get a hold on something sharp and pointy… you understand. Goodbye.' And with that, he clicked off the phone. Maybe he was making a big mistake. But he hadn't got much in his head to think of any other solution.

Asuma stared calmly at the receiver for several seconds, then slowly put the phone down, slowly rising his eyebrows as he looked down at the unlit cigarette in his mouth. Maybe after all he wouldn't be needing matches. Sabaku no Daichi would probably ignite it with words alone.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato woke up startled at the alarm he himself had set, feeling like if he had slept about five minutes (according to the clock, it had been more like forty) and as soon as he did, he felt the migraine tenderly nesting in his brain like a very lovely and poetic dove of about four hundreds kilos. Any more pressure and his eyeballs would fall out his face with a literal pop.

Once, when he'd been young and alone and stupid, he'd taken to drinking. He hadn't drank for the taste, and didn't drink for any other reason than simply aiming to get drunk, and once drunk he'd be too stupid to think too much and when the stupidity left he'd be too busy nursing a hangover and vomiting to have much time to remember why was he alone without knowing where he was and much less where he was going. What he was feeling now was a Déjà Vú of a hangover of epic proportions. Only this time there wouldn't be a tomboyish redhead it turn his life upside down and kick him out of the slump he'd been in then.

_The Epoch of Decline_, he thought groggily, padding towards the bathroom so he could wash his face and have some aspirin. How come he had all symptoms of getting drunk and none of the perks of it? You need to learn to control your stress levels, Minato, Sure. Because he enjoyed feeling like this and did it on purpose. It was on days like this that he missed going to his psychiatrist. Today, particularly, he would have really enjoyed throwing blunt objects in the old woman's direction.

With the stress levels he had it was a wonder he didn't have an ulcer yet. If by wonder you meant 1.0 mg tablets of Rivotril, not to mention he'd have to buy more milk on the way if he didn't want to die from a stomach ulcer…

…and he'd just had Gaara clinging to him when the father walked in, the little boy clinging to him like a limpet and he hadn't thought anything at all, even though it was obvious the man was displeased by the situation… After washing his face with cold water several times, he felt -and thankfully, looked- more like a human being and less like something that had crawled out of the morgue, and after changing his clothes for jeans and a dark turtleneck, he threw on a vest and his glasses for good measure.

Dark colors worked better on his complexion, and the wire-rims made wonders to distract one from the dark bags under his eyes, so what he looked like was by far an improvement from the parent that had come to drop his kid about five hours before. He was rather surprised when the kindergarten's teacher told him that the redhead's father had told them that of course Gaara was supposed to go with him, but he hid it well enough, making some vague comment about just wanting to avoid problems for the school. By the time he was done with the talk, a pair of green and blue eyes were set on him, analyzing him as if he were some secret code that needed to be broken. He wondered if Naruto had told the redhead what had happened, how much of it had been. Not that he could do much about it either way.

'Hey, ready to go have lunch?' he asked, smiling lightly at the kids. 'I made pho.'

'I know.' the blond replied, dragging the redhead with him and only letting go of him when he was close enough to grab onto his father's hand. 'I saw you do it this morning.'

Gaara stared up at the older blond, noticing there was something strange about him, but not putting a finger on it. Instead, he hugged his teddy closer, being partially happy he was let go with Naruto and asked: 'What is Pho?'

'It's a type of Vietnamese soup.' Minato supplied, hesitating a moment about taking Gaara's hand or telling him to grab Naruto's, before deciding that crossing the street with two small kids under his responsibility was too much for such wonderings. If Gaara tripped or Naruto did, the two kids would go down like domino pieces. After another moment of hesitation, he took the redhead's hand and the three resumed walking back to the department.

'Soup with white noodles and meat and yummy green stuff.' The little blond supplied, as usual, not knowing why adults failed to answer questions straight. Either way, he was happy there would be meat on it, his daddy almost never cooked anything with it. Unless it was fake meat…. 'You'll like it. It's salty and spicy.'

'Ah. Okay.' said Gaara, gripping the hold on his hand a little tighter. It seemed that the blond man was having clammy hands for no reason, so he had to be sure that his hand wouldn't let go of it. He looked at Naruto. 'Teddy likes salty and spicy too. But raccoonie would only eat sweets.'

Naruto stared at him for a few seconds, then smiled.

'Maybe that's why it's so fat.' he said, giggling behind his hand. Minato, who had been off in la-la-minor-molester's-land startled a little and looked down at his kid for a moment, then did his best to relax.

'That's possible. But he says he doesn't mind.' The redhead stepped up, skipping a little hole in the ground, then looked up at the big blond. 'Do you want him?'

Gaara held up his toy, showing a clear answer.

'You look sad. You could use a hug from teddy.' Because the blond was looking quite nervous lately. And he knew that hugging to plushy made him always feel a little better. The man stared at the little kid for a moment in surprise, his hands tightening lightly on both his son and the redhead's for a moment.

'I... it's okay. But thank you.' he smiled at him, then at Naruto, a she caught the worried glance. 'I'll be okay... I just missed some sleep. Thank you.'

Gaara frowned, hugging his teddy closer to himself but not leaving eyes off him for a moment or two, observing. Then he slowed down for a half of step and leaned over, under Minato's knees in conspiracy whisper as if that could make him not be hearable by Minato.

'What's happened? Did your dad loose a wallet? Because he looks like if he did.'

Naruto looked at the redhead, but then just shook his head and put a hand to his lips, signaling him to remain quiet. It wasn't his wallet because it had been missing in the house since almost two weeks ago. It had been The Call, and whatever Gaara's dad had told him, but having Gaara sad besides his dad was really too much for one little blond.

'Let's play Sonic today? You promised you' help me with the lava level.' Because last time Gaara's brother and sister had insisted they wanted to play Mario and Gaara had been crying, so he had hardly been any sort of opposition for the older pair. Gaara looked at the blond for a moment in silence, then he tossed a glance to the older blond.

'I will.' he said. He wanted to see it. He was not paying much attention to it before. Besides Kankuro was making it look unbelievably easy and he couldn't believe that such level could be so easy. 'But I want to play Luigi.'

Luigi was good. A funny, cheery character. Not like Naruto's dad. He speeded up with his steps forward and looked at the blond with stubborn expression, showing the toy up again.

'Nooo, Gaaaraaa~' Naruto agonized. 'That's Mario… Luigi is Mario's brother, Sonic is the blue thing with spikes that picks up golden rings and you play it in the black video game, not the white and red one…'

Minato made a similar face, tough he probably felt more pain at the misunderstanding. Sonic and Mario had been part of his childhood, after all, having them confused was a lot more painful for him than the little blond. But at least it was enough to distract him from his own private mind theater. Gaara looked at Naruto like if he was saying something completely new to him. Then he grimaced.

'But this one is hard and Tails always loses… it's hard to run after Sonic to not be lost…' He remembered the pipes level. It was more of a labyrinth than anything else. He still didn't know how Naruto found exit. To him it looked as easy as pie. 'Lava level will be probably very hard.'

'No, Gaara-kun.' the older blond interrupted this time. 'You are getting confused. You can't play with tails until Sonic 2, and Naru's having problems with Sonic 1, and the pipes are only part of Mario world, you can't have them mixed, they are from different consoles! The closest thing to pipes you get is- ' And what remained of the ten-minute-walk plus extra-seven-minutes to buy milk in the grocery shop was filled lots of data regarding late-80's-early-90's videogame and pop culture data neither of the four-years-old year old attention spans could hope to hold onto.

But at least Minato did finally forget his trauma's for a while. Up until they literally rang on the door's bell.

#+#+#+#+#+#

They looked at each other. There was no getting back now. Kankuro, being the more courageous one, stepped on his toes and ringed the bell. And then, with the hearts in their throats, pounding a little too loud and clammy hands, they stood in the silent breezy weather, looking at the door – and waited.

#+#+#+#+#+#

It took a little while for the door to open, as when he had looked through the peep-hole, he had seen nothing on the other side. Minato had been half-heartedly going through a few new pages he already had decided would go to the trash, so it was more than anything an excuse not to sit in front of the computer and stare blankly at the screen. He had already fed both kids, given Gaara his medicine and cleaned after them, and the kids had retreated somewhere among the veranda mini-jungle, not to mention his mind really wasn't on anything he was reading. Distracted as he was, he just stared a moment to the closed door, then opened it.

For a moment he truly, really believed the figures on the other end to be products of his imagination.

The kids stared back. The long and unease silence emerged. Finally, after tossing nervous glances at each other, Temari pushed Kankuro out from the line they formed, hiding behind him. The boy blushed, looking at his toes and then at the blond, hiding his hands in his pockets to hide his nervousness.

'H-hi.' he said finally, trying to regain the loose composure he usually had 'W-we came as you said to come, with a map, eh… because… we had nothing else to do and…'

'The school was boring!' piped out Temari from behind his back, looking at the blond with challenging stare, though she was whole pink from flushing 'And the kids didn't let us learn! So we thought we could come because it's quiet enough to study here! Right, Kankuro?'

'Uh, yeah, and besides… we had this map, so…'

The brown-haired kid unpacked the thing he held in one of his pockets, showing the blond his own making and hiding his face for a moment behind it

'…so why not to use it if we did? Because you left it, right?'

'So we came!' added Temari with a voice three tones a little too loud 'And we took the last bus! They won't let us in school since now it's closed and they only make people sit in there, those who didn't go out already!'

That was a stark naked lie and Temari knew that Kankuro knew it and could catch it, but she pinched his arm so he didn't say anything. She looked at the blond.

'So!... So!...' she spoke, stepping out from behind the boy's back '…we're not going back!'

Kankuro winced. The last words were almost shouted at the blond, like if he was Temari's colleague and not the famous Naruto's dad they kept on treating like something more holly than any adults (but of course, not dad. Dad was the most holly thing on the world). The girl seemed to realize what she did, because she looked at the blond like if he was about to eat her and scurried away behind Kankuro's back again.

Minato just kept staring at the pair of siblings, his expression dumbfounded. After almost a full minute, he finally raised both hands to cover his mouth, some muffled sort of word coming from behind them.

'Ohgod.'

That's what it sounded like, at least.

That made both of the kids stop and look at the blond with uncertainty. It felt wrong, almost too wrong to not suspect anything serious, so they looked at his face, searching for signs of any situation they has already been in before. And what they saw, didn't made them feel any better.

'Did we… do it really wrong?...' finally asked Temari, even if she knew how foolish the question was. Because of course they did it wrong, they were not supposed to go here at any terms or conditions. Kankuro let his hands fall down hopelessly.

'We're sorry.' he added, hoping it would at least soothe the scared look on Minato's face 'We didn't know…'

'We thought…'

'Maybe we should go back…' Temari looked at her brother with a little of 'no', but he glanced back with 'let it go' and closed the matter.

She looked down at her legs.

'Yeah… we have a spare ticket anyway… so we will be going.'

'What? No, God, no.' Going out of the house, he reached for the kids, stopped halfway and took his hands back to his mouth. 'Oh, God.'

What had he done? Now there was no way the man wouldn't kill him. What if he had ruined Naruto's chance of having friends and- and- _One step at the time, Minato. Try to take too many at the same time and you'll end up falling on your face._

It wasn't the advice (good as it might be) but his psychiatrist's voice that got him out of the panicked stillness. The first thing to do, obviously, was get the kids out of the street and into the house. Whatever the man thought of him, *he* knew it was safer than leaving them out or alone at school. 'I'm sorry, you just… You just surprised me.' He smiled at them, though he doubted it was a convincing smile. 'Come on in, don't stay outside.'

The kids looked at him, unsure.

'You don't look like if you wanted us to stay.' murmured Kankuro with disappointment. It wasn't really how he thought the whole thing would be.

'Oh, no, no, It's nothing like that, I was just so surprised… I wasn't expecting you at all.' Not knowing what else to say, he just gently ushered them inside the department, making a gesture for them to take their backpacks off. 'Are you guys hungry?'

'No.' said the kids in unison, already giving the side where kitchen could be found a longing look. The bag packs hit the floor, but they kept on standing in one place, looking at the blond with serious faces. Along with a growling from the stomach. Temari blushed, but didn't move an inch, ignoring it like if it didn't happen. 'We're not.'

'Well, why don't you set the table for the two of you? You know where things are, I'll just heat up the soup, the kids and I already ate…' Trying to control the quick beating of his heart, he concentrated on forcing it to stop beating three or four times per second (or that's how it felt, at least) and instead moved to taking the soup off the freezer, where only the first layer had managed to create a thin crust of frozen broth. He had barely put it less than an hour ago after all. 'You are lucky I made enough to have leftovers.' he commented a little more naturally as he dumped the contents to boil at the stove. 'Or you would have had to wait a lot more for other things to unthaw.'

'We're not hungry.' said Temari, already rummaging through the cupboard for the search of the plates while Kankuro got himself a chair to fish out the mugs from the higher place. 'Won't you be eating with us?'

'I already ate with Gaara and Naruto.' he explained, stirring the soup with what probably was more force than what was necessary. He stopped long enough to help Kankuro down the chair 'Besides, I need to call your father to let him know you guys arrived safely.'

'Oh, about that…' Both of the kids stopped setting the table and looked at Minato with unease. Call him? So soon?... But… Kankuro shot his sister a distressed glance, but she didn't seem to find herself in this situation any better than he did. He cleared his throat.

'Is this really necessary?...' he asked timidly, stepping out with nonchalant pose again, only he was all tensed up 'Dad kinda… doesn't know we're here.'

The girl nodded quietly, not daring to speak out through guilt. As the oldest kid she was the most responsible for whatever happened between their three, so she felt it in the heaviest possible way. There was no protesting against breaking the rules if they really were broken. Like – rule number x – don't get away from school until daddy arrives. Don't take brothers with you. Look after them to not break any rules. Be responsible. Be a good girl.

'I know he doesn't. But if he goes to pick you up and you aren't there…' He'd kill him. Possibly his kids too, and Naruto while at it. Paranoid much? …Who knew? '…there could be real problems.'

And he couldn't face another trial. Not again, and most definitely not so soon, and if anything he did caused Naruto to lose his first friend, if he got into trouble again, moving had been devastating enough the first time…

'I'm sorry, I have to call him. If Naruto did the same thing you two did and I didn't know where he was, I'd die from fright.'

The kids looked at each other with a question, then with very sour grimaces, then nodded at the blond. They knew what they were doing, right? Even if somehow they thought that the blond might actually do something else without getting them in trouble like that… but at least they had landed where they wanted. They didn't feel really hungry anymore, though.

The man's expression fell as well, but after stirring the soup one more time, he left it with the fire in low and walked out of the kitchen. It took him a few circles around the living room and a look at the younger kids to make sure they were all right and tell them Gaara's siblings were there for him to gather the courage to dial the number of the redhead's office.

Inside the office, Daichi was growing the third hand. Literally or not, he didn't know. He didn't remember his biology teacher telling him that hands could grow out from the teeth, but he was sure that evolution was taking its toll on him for sure. It was not first and probably not last time when he was doing that. That – which meant running around all floors with folders of every damn number written in this company, gathering the missing ones and preparing for another month of sitting with the said folders until he would read them all like a fascinating book to find the missing mistake and make three another in other places to repeat from beginning. Click restart button.

He was only on the third floor, trying to balance the high pack of folders between his both hands and one of them (from two months ago) between his mouth, when secretary's boss ran up from the stairs.

'Ah, chief-sama!' she announced, passing him by as he tried to maneuver through the giggling girls who tossed comments about him getting nice muscles from running like that, leaving him unable to answer 'I found those documents you asked me for, Mr. Nagato called to tell he is very sorry, but he can't answer… oh, Mr. Sabaku! Good to see, you good morning-' he nodded to her '-I think that when I passed through your office your phone called again… what's happening, you get a lot of them lately-'

'Mgrmgh.' he said, seeing the frown that showed on his boss' face and made his best to get out of the room. Great, couldn't that stupid blondie shut her mouth for once? Everyone knew in this company that if you use too much of telephone it's getting suspicious you try to move to the sister's company of the boss' brother and since they both were nonstop in fight that could succeed into being fired and not hired again. Everyone, except of stupid blondie, who just didn't know when to shut up. Once again he got to know that there were many kinds of blondes on this world. And his wife was a plain exception of the rule.

'Mgrgfgh.' he said, picking up the phone as it de facto, rang happily and quite loudly as he made it like that just to not miss another call from hospital. For the love of gods, he hoped it was not this again. He had enough of problems 'Mghhgmh…' he took out the folder from his mouth. That was brilliant move, just on the level of a primalistic caveman '…-I meant… on the phone, and that better would be important because-'

'Daichi, where the heck are you? I told you to bring those folders right now and we're waiting for you for twenty minutes already!'

'-I'll be right there, I just have a phone call!'

'Phone call again? We don't have time for phone calls!'

'What is it- I told you I will be right back!'

'It's later than tomorrow and those folders were appointed for more than weeks ago!'

'Don't interrupt my call so I shall end it quick-' The doors of the office opened and a tall man with a bandage over his eye came in, looking at him with rugged face. With one swift move he caught the phone receiver and slammed it on the maternal phone.

'Daichi, the boss is observing you.' he said in the tone that could be barely hearable 'Don't play hard to get, you don't have possibilities to do so.' The saffron haired man turned his head to the side slightly. Indeed, the boss was looking at him, coming after him from the third floor. Without any word he took the folders and nodded to the man.

'Thanks, Baki. I am in debt.' And with that, he left the room. He was not going to play with fate right now. He had family to feed after all. He only hoped that whoever it was, it was not so important it could wait.

Minato stared back at the receiver as if it were some brand of alien vegetable he wasn't sure he could really cook with and slowly walked back to the kitchen so he could stir the soup again and serve it in two bowls and leaving them in front of the kids.

'I couldn't catch your father.' he told them, his expression worried.

Kids looked up at him, their facial expressions brightening with smile that was quickly hidden.

'That's too bad.' said Kankuro, slurping on his soup innocently, eyeing the man thoroughly.

'Yes. Very, very bad.' added Temari, dangling her legs unconsciously 'But daddy is very busy.'

'Yeah.'

'He might not get it even later.'

'Yeah.'

'Or at all.'

'Yeah.' Now there was no mistaking it, the kids smiled at each other, though they lowered their heads, trying to hide it. Without much success.

Needing a moment to organize his thoughts, the blond walked to the living room and sat down on the couch, expression still worried. Okay, he hadn't been able to pick the phone. That happened, maybe he was busy. The problem came in the case that he didn't get the message, went to pick his kids and found out that they weren't where they were supposed to be and went into a mad rampage to kill him. That's what he would do in his place.

Not that he blamed the kids for wanting to be looked after instead of waiting on their own for hours to no end, but their father already had a bad opinion of him and even accidentally thinking he might have stolen his kids or something… With a sigh, he went for his cell phone, and after a few choice clicks, was sending the redhead a text message. If he didn't answer in half an hour, he'd try the office phone again.

_(('Temari and Kankuro at my house, they took the bus on their own. I'm looking after them, please call me as soon as possible. U.M. '))_

No more than three seconds later a red head emerged up from the side of his knee and looked at him with innocent stare, observing the phone and the blond.

'Are you tired?' he asked.

Minato startled so bad he dropped the cell phone. The rooms were carpeted, luckily.

'Gaara...' he forced himself to calm down and pick the cell phone back up, smiling at the little kid. 'Yes, a little I didn't sleep much last night.'

'Oh.' said the kid, then he propped himself to climb on the sofa with the blond, sitting beside him. Then he looked at him with a very serious stare. 'Want to talk about it with me?' he said in a tone that he always heard from his daddy when he had a problem and daddy miraculously knew that he did and wanted to help him out. Gaara didn't know how it was possible to know about his every problem just like that but it was probably becuse daddy was daddy. And since the blond seemed to be much more obvious with having a problem, he left Naruto for a moment as the blond decided to get something for them and decided to use it well. Maybe the blond really wanted help but was just shy? Just to be sure, he hid his teddy's ears.

'I promise I won't tell anyone.' he whispered in the lowest whisper, showing how well hid were the teddy's ears. Now the blond could be sure his secrets were safe. Minato took a hand to his mouth to keep himself from showing the way the redhead's comment made him smile, but it was hard to. For someone that had left his son black and blue the first close encounter they had, Gaara was an almost unnaturally sweet kid.

'No, Gaara, it's okay…' he said, reaching with a hand and brushing the red hair in a soft gesture, before pulling away guiltily. 'I just stayed late watching some movies and didn't notice the time.'

Gaara looked up at him, then fixed an invisible hair on his teddy with a silent pout. He liked the caress, but that was nothing to be bragging about.

'You're sick then?'

The older man shook his head lightly, still smiling at the kid.

'No... I just slept very little. I'll be okay tomorrow, you'll see.'

Gaara looked up at him for a moment, then nodded.

'Okay.' he said simply and get off the sitting, walking away toward direction when he last saw Naruto. If Minato said so, why wouldn't he believe him so? He was an adult after all. He knew what he was doing. Minato smiled after the redhead, then got up to check how the kids were doing with the soup. 'Is it okay, guys? I'm sorry, I didn't ask if you liked this kind of thing…'

The kids looked at him in the middle of licking off the plates. Oops. A second later, the plates were laying on the table with a twirl as they were wiping of their faces with their hands, trying to look like if they didn't do a thing.

'It was good!'

'Very good!'

'Yeah! But we didn't do what we were doing, we just-!'

'Kankuro!'

'…yummy, thanks!'

Despite himself, Minato caught himself chuckling.

'Okay then… There's still a lot left, though. Let me get you another plate.' Lucky him that he prepared big meals so he could freeze them for when he was feeling lazy... He had been thinking about giving the kids some breaded soy steak, thankfully he had decided to go with pho. The kids handed him their plates without a word of protest, but with slight blushes on their faces. Once they were sure Minato couldn't spot them, they turned to themselves.

'Do you think he saw us?' asked Kankuro in conspirational tone. Temari leaned over. 'He wasn't very angry…'

'Of course he did!' said Temari, looking at the doors, watching for the blond's come back 'I hope he won't tell daddy…'

'It was your idea after all.'

'But you didn't have to follow! Stupid Kankuro!'

'You're the stupid one! I do what I want! Stupid sister!'

'Why you!...' Once Minato was back, the fight was developing on Olympic levels of boxing.

'Hey! Heyheyhey you two!' catching them by the arms after leaving the newly filled bowls, he pulled the pair apart. 'What's going on here?'

The kids both looked up at him with pouts on their faces and turned back to the sides. What were they supposed to say? That it was all because they liked his soup too much? He would get hurt if not more angry. And besides, Gaara seemed to be watching them with bewildered above from the corner, thinking probably he was not spottable. Well, he wasn't until now. Any more violence and he would probably add the more problem to it all, like always. The kid never sat silent when they wanted him to. They looked at each other.

'Nothing-ing.' they said almost in unison and looked both at the floor with stubborn expressions, not daring to face each other. There was no point in speaking at all here. The blond was left to try and stare them into getting answers, and when that didn't work, settled for patting the top of their heads lightly.

'Go back to eat before it gets cold, okay? Cold soup is never as tasty as hot one.'

They looked at him with shifty eyes and nodded, getting back to the table in silence. After a few seconds, clinking of spoons filled the room better than any kind of silence. For a moment.

'H… hey!' could be suddenly heard from the other room in a surprised squeak 'What are you doing, that's mine!'

'What are you doing?'

'Owwie!'

'Stop that! He is hurt!'

'No! That's mine! Go get your own!'

'Let go!'

'Gaa-'

'Ah…!' Which followed by a loud wet crash on the ground. And a cry of despair also.

Minato, who had taken his eyes off from the kids for just a moment to go back to the kitchen and start cleaning some of it, came back in what really couldn't have been over twenty seconds. In that amount of time, an accident seemed to have happened leaving in its wake a shell-shocked blond girl, a crying brunette and a soaked up redhead.

'I didn't do it!' his son added, pointing at the mess on the floor. Minato barely wasted a moment to thank the god of linoleum and kiddie safe dishware before going into action.

'Gaara!' he immediately kneeled down to the kid's height, pulling at his shirt so it wouldn't stick to his skin. 'Does it burn? Kankuro, did you get hurt?'

Gaara looked up at the blond, then shook his head quickly. No, it didn't burn. It was just… warm. And smelled nice. Without a second thought he put his hand into him mouth, sucking off the substance from it. Yummy. On the other hand, Kankuro wasn't so happy about it.

'Nooo!' he wailed, fisting his eyes in a sob he was trying to contain, but he couldn't help it; it was just unfair! His little brother was always like that! When he wanted something he always wanted it from him and not from Temari and he couldn't get it from Temari because Temari was the oldest and the girl so dad always told him to share with his brother when he didn't want to- and even now he had less! Just a whole plate of soup, his soup, landed on the floor because Gaara as always started bugging him and he didn't even said _please_ and it was just so unfair, the plate was broken and all anger was going to be put on him because Gaara was just a 'baby' and nothing of that would happen if he didn't just start pushing him and trying to get his dirty little hands into the plate into his clean soup! And he didn't even say 'please'!... He looked up at the redhead, shaking with a sob, smearing the violet paint on his face and looked at the smaller kid. Gaara immediately caught his glare with his green eyes and froze in the middle of the suck on his middle finger.

'I hate you!...' said Kankuro, clamping his palms into tight fists 'I hate you!' he howled, running at the redhead with his hands ready to punch. Gaara let out a high scream and started struggling in Minato's hands, only to tear away still in his wet shirt and run away into another room, with Kankuro on his tail. 'It's all your fault!' shouted the brunet, after him, almost catching him in the doors and failing, tripping on his face with a crash. After a moment of shivering, he slowly rose his face up, looking up. Not fair. That stupid baby was even quicker than him!...

'I hate you!' he screamed to the person inside another room 'I just hope you die! Hit your forehead, bleed out and die! Leave me alone for once! I don't like you!' The redhead didn't respond. Only sat in silence, staring back at his brother, hidden under the bed. It was safe. Just only not safe at all. He was not coming out. Never. Temari finally turned her head to Minato.

'I didn't do it too.' she said finally, pointing at the plate. Maybe there was more suitable things to say there, but she really couldn't find out what were they. So she thought it would be enough.

'Hey, leave him alone!' The older blond caught his son by the back of the shirt more by custom than actual reflex, and was surprised about exactly how angry his son looked. Not that it wasn't easy to get Naruto into a squabble, but this angry…

'Naru…?' The little blond wiped at his nose and looked away as all answer. Minato sighed. 'Go help Gaara pick some new clothes, please?'

Naruto glared at the older kid for a few more moments and then simply dashed down the hallway and into the room Gaara had been in, not even sparing the brunette a look.

'Gaara…?'

In the meantime, his father had picked up the biggest parts of the plastic bowl and left them on the table, giving the girl a reassuring smile.

'Don't worry, it's okay. Just stay there a moment so I can clean this mess.' But instead of doing that, he went to the hallway and placing a hand on the boy's back, he rubbed at it lightly. 'Kankuro, are you okay…? Did you get hurt?'

Gaara looked up at Naruto, but didn't move an inch. It was too dangerous to try the patience of angry older brother. Because Kankuro rarely got angry. But when he got angry, he _got angry_. Really angry.

'I'm here.' he mumbled in barely hearable voice, hugging the soaked teddy to himself. Dust and soup were not feeling very nice when it got to his hair at once 'Shhh, he might hear you!...' On the other side of the room Kankuro just kept hiding his face and shivering, trying his best not try cry out loud.

'I'm not huwt.' he managed to rasp out finally as he looked up a bit, sending a glare toward Gaara. The redhead hugged himself to the back of the wall. Kankuro looked away, sniffing up the snot and grimacing in despairing expression, trying to wipe his face quickly, that made him look like if he had some strange kind of sickness that made his face look all violet for no reason 'It's his fault. You hear me, I hate you!' he shouted again. When Gaara didn't respond, he wiped his eyes more. For some reason, the tears didn't want to stop flowing. Naruto glared at the older boy and without a word went to the door and slammed it shut, effectively blocking the sight of the brunet and his father.

'Naruto!'

No answer. Minato sighed. Focusing his attention on the little boy, he helped him up into a sitting position and ruffled his head lightly.

'Nothing is his fault, Kankuro. It was just an accident, don't worry about it. Please stop crying…?'

Inside the room, Naruto stayed glued to the door, obviously eavesdropping on the conversation, but after another glare at it, he pulled away and went to the edge of the bed, peering down.

'Gaara… I closed the door, get out of there, daddy said you need to change clothes.'

'I'm not… crying.' said the boy, holding a breath up to stop hitching in his voice as he looked at the blond, his cheeks flushed pink and his face still violet 'It was not an accident. He started pulling on it. He did!' The redhead on the other side shook his head in protest and only hugged the teddy closer to himself. Kankuro was still angry. He was not coming out.

'Maybe he did, but neither of you meant for it to fall, did you?' he smiled lightly and ruffled his hair again. 'That means it was an accident. And it's nothing worth crying over, okay? I can clean it up easy and there's still some pho left, if you still want it.'

'Gaara…' Naruto's voice was soft and thick. 'Please come out. I don't want my daddy to get sadder.'

Kankuro didn't nod or protest to that, looking up from under his bangs at the blond with saddened face. What was the blond saying? Nothing to cry over? But now the floor was all dirty and the plate – such a nice one too! – was broken and it was probably very expensive… he didn't know if dad was having enough money to repay it or not but either way he'd probably still be very angry. And what about their opinion? It almost looked like if every time they met the blond there was some staining on the floor or carpet, be it blood or edible substances. He looked down at himself. He did want a little more soup, but it was probably overusing the blond's kindness already. So he shook his head. And with a heavy heart, he took out one of his dolls. Karasu. It took him two weeks to carve just the head. So it was probably enough. He reached it out, handling it to the blond.

'Don't tell dad.' he mumbled, looking at him with the same look still. 'He would probably be very unhappy about it too.'

Because if anything, he got his dad moods the best. Sure, others did too, but it were his gusts' that came true the most. Not that it mattered, because dad usually didn't pay much attention to him, nor did his siblings. But he knew what he knew and he was not going to stop trusting what he knew. So there. But at least he hoped he didn't have to give up his other dolls too. Giving up Karasu was hard enough for him alone.

Gaara still didn't move from the bed, though he started picking on teddy's dirtied up now hair and turning it around. He didn't want the blond to be sadder than he already was and from what he thought he was already pretty sad. So it was not good to stay under the bed like that. But then, he still didn't feel too good when it came to security around the hiding. On the other hand, the shirt on his back was getting awfully cold and greasy…

'Here.' he said finally, getting out from under the bed 'But teddy stays there.'

Naruto nodded, sniffing lightly and once Gaara was from under the bed, he threw his arms around his neck and clung to the redhead, dirty shirt or not.

'Why does everyone mess things up?' he asked miserably.

Gaara locked his hands over the blond, leaning with his clean cheek over the blond's ear and let him cling to him more. Rarely anyone did this so it was nice to hold and be held like that. Very. Even if his shirt still soaked his back and made his hair greasy.

'I dunno.' He muttered, looking at the door 'I dunno why.'

Minato examined the doll, his mind already helpfully storing it in the 'Must use' box – four arms? The thing had four arms, with all articulation ball jointed…?- until he finally got what the brunet meant by giving it.

'What? No, no.' Taking his hand, he carefully deposited the puppet in it, making the boy take it back. 'There's not need to pay for that, Kankuro, really… Those plates aren't even mine, I think they were left from the previous tenant… I just use them because they were around and I never really got time to unpack some of our things.'

The lie made sense, so he hoped it would be enough to convince the kid…

'Really, there's no attachment to it. And the floor's linoleum, so all we need to care for is clean it all right so it won't be slippery later.' He ruffled the hair this time, slightly playfully. 'Let's do this, help me clean up and don't fight with your brother anymore, and we'll call it even, okay?'

'But it's all his fault.' said Kankuro under his nose, making another pout, but nodding his head. He could help if it meant having the thing forgiven and forgotten. And about Gaara… well, he could not fight him anymore. That he could do.

'I'll talk to him about it.' Minato said, finally getting up. 'Just let me clear up the bits first and then we can use some papers…'

It took a few minutes to clear the mess up, more than anything because of the grease, as he had to find something to get it off and make sure the floor wasn't slippery anymore, then sit Kankuro back down long enough to leave a last plate of heated up soup in front of him, then left the older siblings to go knock in his son's room.

'Gaara…?'

The redhead peaked at him from the bed he was sitting on, immediately falling backward and seeking out if Kankuro wasn't anywhere close. When the other kid was nowhere to be seen, he loosened up a bit.

'Sorry.' he said, looking up at the blond with timid expression, playing with the brim of his new shirt with bunny. He liked it. Even if it was painfully pink. Naruto seemed to have only bright colored clothes, not like him. 'I just wanted that little…' he showed how very, very little, less than his smallest finger it was '…but it suddenly became that much.' And with that, he showed the size of something that was four times wider than himself. Then he started playing with his shirt again. 'Mommy says I was a bad kid. ' he murmured, dangling his legs and looking at Naruto. 'Will it hurt?'

He didn't want to be punished. But that's what all bad kids got. He was only that little but he already knew that.

Oblivious to the kid's thoughts, Minato smiled and patted his head, noticing that his son was sitting quietly next to the older boy and was wearing a shirt with rather suspicious stains, especially on the sleeves.

'Naru, take off that shirt, it got dirtied up too.' Naruto stared down at himself, seemed to slowly realize what his father meant by his word and nodded, struggling with the red shirt he wore.

'Either way... Gaara, it's not nice to take things without asking first. Next time just tell me and I'll give you some, okay? Don't take it from your siblings, especially without asking.'

Gaara closed his eyes shut, expecting a hit, but when nothing of such happened, he peaked up at the man and frowned when he simply left him alone. That was weird. His daddy by now would be seething flames through his mouth. Like in this cartoon he saw once.

'But I didn't want much. Only this little.' he said, showing again how little he wanted and he curled again, seeing that he was starting to argue when he was supposed to stay shut. But he was still forgetting about that.

'I know.' The older blond said, helping his son to get rid of the shirt and replacing it with a red one with a large yellow spiral in the middle. 'But even so, you need to ask for things. How would you feel if someone took your food or teddy without asking first?'

'Not teddy!' The redhead sprung up from the bed immediately, looking at the blond with desperate eyes and suddenly get off from the bed only to crawl under it yet again. 'Not teddy! Mine teddy! Mine!'

'Gaara!' Minato laughed a little, crouching down so he could pull the covers of the bed up to expose the redhead. 'It was just an example… Come back here, no one will take your teddy, I promise.'

The redhead looked at him for a moment with vigilance, then at Naruto and after a few seconds, he finally crawled out, sucking on a finger and hugging the dirtied plush to his chest. Dirtying yet another shirt again.

'One is lining.' he mouthed around his finger, looking at both blonds. Maybe it was an example, but it was scary, too scary for his tastes. Adults should know better. Minato's smile dimmed as he looked at the redhead, and brushed his forehead lightly.

'I'm sorry, Gaara... I didn't mean to scare you.' he obviously had no idea what the redhead had said.

'Iz okay' said Gaara again, hugging himself to the adult blond in a wet, flat hug and looking at him in the eye. Wasn't he always glued to his phone like if it grew out of his hand? Why was he not rushed up to it now? Adults always got a fever when it came to ringing phones. He didn't quite understand why. 'You're not going to pick up?'

Minato smiled back at the kid, only until he realized the background noise was actually his ringtone and ran out of the room and past the other kids to get it.

'Ah, the phone!' He looked around in a panic until he finally spotted it in the couch, where he had left it off… an hour ago? God, didn't time pass fast- He felt a bucket of ice drop on him at the name that flasher in the screen when he went to pick it. He had almost forgotten all about it…

'Guys… it's your dad.' He told the older kids, taking the phone with him into the kitchen 'Please, be quiet for a few minutes…'

He practically waited until the last ring before picking up.

'...yes?'

'You have three seconds to explain yourself. One.'

Minato flinched a bit at the voice.

'I left a text message because you didn't answer the phone? You sounded busy…' he blurted out immediately.

'Oh, busy I was. If I only got this call sooner…' said in a tone that dripped with kindness and venom of the worst poisonous snake 'That's not what I'm asking about and you know it well. I have axe in my office. Where are my kids and why they are with you!' The last sentence was almost screamed out, if only it wasn't for the restrain put on the voice that made the phone fall deaf for a moment. Then, with a breath, the receiver rasped in a totally calmed tone: 'Two.'

There was a pause from the blond's side of the line, some sort of unidentifiable sound from his end. When he spoke again, his voice was as flat as soda that had been left out opened in a hot summer day for hours to no end.

'Don't. Threaten. Me.' The blond said in that soft, almost silky voice. 'You have no right to.'

'Oh no, now suddenly I don't, right?' said Daichi, holding onto the phone with white knuckles. Baki knocked on the window with a warning but he showed him a finger. He was busy trying to track a free line from almost fifteen minutes now since he read a message on his cell phone. Now he suddenly didn't. He just had to be calm and smile to the camera when his kids were with the blond for no reason, even if they were forbidden… he knew it, he totally knew that the blond was having some twist in personality 'Those kids are all I have and I won't stop before anything to protect them, you hear me? Anything. All I want is a logical explanation to all of this but if you can't give me one then I assume there just isn't one and try out my fireproof axe for not exactly healthy reasons. Am I clear?'

Oh, funny. The blond wouldn't probably behave the other way if his little sweet candy boy just vanished like that. He had no right to tell him to not act that way. Minato's voice didn't change lines. It seemed to suddenly have lost any ability to hold inflections and now simply enunciated words as a computer generated text reader might.

'I already told you they are here. I told you as soon as they got to my house, so don't try to act out as if I kidnapped them. They just got here on their own, and I don't even know how.'

Daichi closed his eyes. That voice was making him more nervous than anything. It was just something beyond natural. He massages his temples for a moment.

'…I want to hear them.' he said finally, looking through the window at Baki who gave him a meanciful look. He turned his back to him. 'All of them. Now.'

There was another period of silence in the phone, interrupted only when it passed form Minato's hands to Temari's. The girl took a phone, looking at the blond with scared face and she closed the receiver to her mouth.

'Uh… hi, daddy…' she started. Daichi felt like something in him broke.

'What the hell is this supposed to be?' he said in a higher tone, making the girl grimace and wince 'Have you totally lost your mind? What have I told you? Why are you there?'

'…I just thought… that it would be a good idea… we had maps, and all…'

'Well, it wasn't. I hope you're proud of yourself. Your mother probably is turning in her grave right now!' Temari gripped at the phone, looking at the floor with glassy eyes. That hurt. She could never really tell what mother would want from her from what she remembered and she didn't remember much. But daddy knew better. So he was probably right. She disappointed mom. 'Are you all right?'

'I… I'm sorry, daddy, I-'

'I asked if you're all right.' She paused, looking at the phone again, trying her best not to cry. Then she nodded, swallowing her unshed tears.

'Yes. I'm all right.'

'Are you sure?'

Daichi pressed the matter. If anything, Temari would be the first to tell him or send a signal. She was the oldest and thus, the smartest from them all. But nothing of such happened.

'Yes. I'm totally fine.' she said again. He scowled.

'That sickens me you feel all right after what you did.' he said in a scathy tone 'Give me your brother. Older one.'

Temari looked at the floor, waiting, but no other word came.

'I'm sorry, daddy.' she muttered quickly, before giving the phone to Minato and running away. She just had to find a quiet place to sit in peace. Only a few minutes to be alone. That was all.

The blonde quietly put up receiver to his mouth.

'Hello.'

Daichi felt his nerves going through a massive strain.

'You're not Kankuro.' he said, pointing out the obvious 'Give me Kankuro.'

What the girl was thinking?... Oh, at times like this one he really just wished for a good translator for kid's language, because all he said was not reaching anyone he was trying to talk to. No matter which kid he chose.

'Are you going to make him cry too?' the emulator voice asked. 'And Gaara?'

'No, I'm going to praise them for what they did.' said Daichi in a vicious tone 'What do you think? Give me them or I'm calling the police.'

'And tell them what? That your kids are in my house instead of waiting six or seven hours for you to pick them up?' And oh, now some sort of unidentifiable emotion was picking up in the voice. 'I didn't kidnap them, but you leave them alone all day and then make them cry on purpose- what kind of person are you? Do you *like* making little kids cry? Do you beat them up too?'

'Oh, I'm not listening to that.' said Daichi with a sneer. He circled the desk with a quick steps 'You have no idea what situation I'm in. I was grateful for what you did once it was starting to go overboard but now- Do you think I like doing that? Leaving them alone for hours? Of course I don't! But I have no other damned choice and if the kids are not going to pick up some responsibility they're going to be eaten out in that freaking jungle! I don't know how did they end up not getting lost but once they would I would have no contact to them and who knows what would happen to the lonely kid in this town! There's more killers here than the police on every corner!' he said, more like shouted, pushing his ideas out of himself one after another once he heard such insinuation.

It was outrageous to talk such things to him, and that was more than horrible to be directed at him-

'And I don't beat my kids! What kind of nonsense is that? Are you trying to make a criminal out of me now?' More heads looked through the see through window to his office, so he went up and closed off the blinds. Then he got back to his desk. 'I haven't allowed them to come to you and they did. For breaking a rule punishment is served. You, as a father, should know it the best. So stop interrupting and give me my kid to the phone.'

'Those problems are yours.' the phone voice said, shaking only slightly. 'They might be your fault or not, but they are your responsibility. I'm sure taking the pressure out in some little kids is very cathartic.' Now Minato just spat the word, treating it as someone who threw away a piece of food that had gone bad and bitten by accident. 'But it doesn't help you and it doesn't help them. What are you going to do next Saturday? Are you going to leave your daughter taking care of the other two again? Do you have any idea how scared she must be about something like that?' he paced in the little kitchen, oblivious to the fact his son was peeking on the edge of the door, blue eyes wide.

'Does it make you feel good to know those kids adore you and all you have to say to make them cry is that you don't like them because they disappointed you?' Now there were barely pauses in between the words, the tone still soft, but also horribly angry. 'Do you really *need* to play with their feelings to be a little more assured that you still have control over them? What the hell is your problem, you are not even here to enjoy the show! Your daughter is hiding in a closet crying her eyes out, do you want me to record it and mail it to you so you don't miss anything?'

'You're not telling me how to bring up my own kids.' Was the cutting answer as Daichi narrowed his eyes looking in front of him. This was going nowhere. He had enough in his life, enough for every little thing he did. He was not going to take this also from some suspicious writer-translator who decided to know better how to act in situation like this 'Spare me the pleasure, liar. I'm going to pick them up this evening and I want to see them healthy. Then we won't bother this smart head of yours anymore. Goodbye.'

And with that, he clacked the phone, leaving it in the state of deafening silence.

Naruto didn't need to hear anymore. Phone, it was always the phone… Even the cell phone couldn't be trusted!

'Gaara!' he hissed, running down the hallway and to his room until he found the redhead, grabbing his hand and yanking him out of it by force, running down it again and ignoring the faint sobs from the closet until he got to the bathroom. 'Gaara, I need help.' he said, pushing the redhead inside and closing the door behind them.

'Stand guard, don't let my daddy get in.'

Even as he instructed the younger boy, Naruto had grabbed the basket for dirty clothes and threw them up on the ground, quickly placing them between the tub and the sink. Carefully climbing up the edge of the tub, he painstakingly climbed on top of the clothes basket and to the sink, distributing his weight as well as possible in the limited and curbed surface. The height made him a little dizzy, even though he knew it wasn't as tall as it looked from up here, but he didn't have time to wonder that. Bracing himself against the wall, he tip toed and felt around the slightly dusty top of the medicine cabinet and found the safety latch, fiddling with it until he managed to lose it. Now the problem was to open the thing with him in the middle of its path…

He tried a few times to reach around and just fiddle with the contents, but there were just too many things inside and he couldn't see, and leaning to the side only made him nearly fall on top of the toilet where he would have doubtlessly broken something. He finally realized that if he crouched low he could open it up and did so, staring up and down the average contents of a medicine cabinet, plus the always impersonal additive of the sad pills his daddy kept in the top shelves. Not the ones he was after, though. The ones he was looking for were the middle shelve, and he quickly opened the box extracting several sleets of bright green, semi-transparent pills. He tossed them on the floor and did his best to close the door again, though he couldn't get the latch to pick on it again all the way, and he didn't have time for it.

He climbed down, jumping from the clothes bin and landing awkwardly with a slapping noise when his hands hit the floor, though he didn't hurt himself- he just needed to get the pills. He picked the capsules and was about to toss them on the toilet, when he stopped, wondering what to do with the things. Somehow tossing them seemed like something hr shouldn't do, yet the alternative…

With a small noise of fright, he started breaking the sheets and letting one pill after another fall with quiet plops into the water. He did this as fast as possible and once he was done, he picked the bits of shiny paper and plastic cases back up, trying to make sure he hadn't forgotten any.

'Hide them.' he told the redhead, pointing at the toy he kept in his hands. 'Hide them and toss them out on the way or somewhere else, don't let my daddy see them.'

Gaara kept on looking through the door, but as nobody was coming in – Temari being gone somewhere, Kankuro not getting close to him lately and Naruto's dad being off somewhere too – nobody was interrupting them. So he turned around to look at what Naruto was doing. At first it seemed to be reasonable, probably Naruto's dad needs some emergency pills like he did when he was very, very sick. And those pills Naruto hold onto were just like that, something he even remembered from the past, they even had the same shine…

He ate them for not feeling too well. But then the blond started throwing them to the toilet and it stopped being just as reasonable. More, it just seemed to be odd. Pills were expensive – he knew that. It was one of the first things he learned on this world as he saw daddy being crouched over some papers and muttering about 'expensive pills' which he 'had to get' and as mommy just smiled at him. So what was Naruto doing was totally not good.

'Why are you throwing this away?' he asked, looking at the swirling green and took the empty cases, looking at them with a doubt but hiding them anyway 'Those didn't seem to be dangerous at all… won't your daddy be mad at you?'

'Daddy told me not to ever let him have them.' Naruto said, looking at the floor with concentration usually reserved for finding Wally. He picked a loose bit of shiny wrapper.

'Why?' asked Gaara, zipping up the teddy again. It seemed to be a little hard as it was now strangely stuffed full, unlike usual 'Are they bad for him?'

Naruto frowned a moment, looking to be at unease.

'They do bad things to him.' he answered, though he didn't sound really sure about them. This time it was Gaara's moment to be confused. Bad things? Those green pills?

'Aren't they for feeling unwell?' he asked, peering at the toilet like if he could still see them if he looked deep enough 'Then why do you have it if they are so bad?'

'...I don't know.' Naruto looked miserable again. 'I don't know. I toss them out and he buys more.'

Gaara looked at him with a thoughtful expression. Naruto threw them out but his dad bought more? Just like in this cartoon where a cat got a lot of pies and took them on table while mouse threw them inside her hole and there were still almost no pies on the table?... Probably something like that… he looked at the blond.

'That's silly.' he said, remembering the shocked expression of the cat once he found out there were no pies on the table 'Can't you tell him to not buy them?'

In response, Naruto had only curled in himself and let out a sob.

Gaara looked at him for a moment, not understanding what was going on, then with a panicked expression he threw his arms around him coddling him the best he could with a stuffed teddy between both of them.

'Okay, I see.' he said, cuddling his friend the best he could, trying to sooth the upcoming storm 'Dun cry. I will tell him.'

Naruto made some noise of negative and clutched the older boy back.

'No, don't tell him anything! If you do he'll remember about them and want them!'

He didn't understand what the pills were for, especially when he himself took them when he had a bad cough, but Minato had told him that if he ever saw him trying to have those pills, he should stop him. He had never seen his daddy have them, but the way he looked at him when he asked him to stop him from drinking them scared him. It was almost somehow worse than when he had a bad phone call…

'Daddy.' In a moment he had let go of Gaara and was running to where he had seen his father the last time. '…daddy?'

The older blond was sitting with his back against the oven, hands pressed tightly against his mouth. At his son's hesitant voice he drew back in breath and quickly wiped his face.

'I'm ok, love.'

He wasn't, and Naruto knew it. He didn't protest when his dad caught him and hugged him tightly to him, just wrapped his little arms around his neck and hugged back. Of course, the moment the line went dead all that false bravery and anger went nowhere, leaving Minato with the initial emotion he'd had to deal with the past year: panic. What had he just done? This time… This time for sure he had ruined things. He couldn't believe what he had just done, yet he couldn't really deny it. Most of it he would pro It was just… The phone call. _He hated phones_.

If the connection had been more trustworthy, he would live on base of Skype programs and instant messengers. Goddamn it, all his resources… he could only contact them through mail or phone. Unless he started traveling around like they used to do before Naruto was born, but he couldn't exactly drag him from one country to another, after the hell that had been the past two years… Damn it, why had the man had to take it out on him?… He hadn't done anything wrong! Only he had, hadn't he? He had written a map. He had meddled where no one called him and because of him now for sure Gaara would never be allowed back in this house, much less close to him or his son.

That's what he had achieved, all by himself. Namikaze Minato, little prodigy who had never in his life managed to do anything right without turning it bad somehow, without managing not to fail spectacularly- he had managed to insult a man he barely knew, made things harder on three defenseless little kids and ruin the first serious bond his son managed, all in forty eight hours, why, he should get a medal for all his efforts- He wished, just as he had for the past over thousand days, for Kushina to be there. He missed and needed her in this hopeless, helpless way a man that had suffered an accident missed a basic sense and knew that it could never be returned, with everything defined by a before and after the knowledge of the measurement of the loss settled in, not in days or years or decades, but forever.

_((Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories))_

A permanent, constant ache and the knowledge that everything they had had amounted to nothing but a little boy that would probably end up hating him no matter what his did and his own uselessness… Why did she have to be dead…?

_(The Epoch of Decline)_

His carelessness, his stupidity again. Did he really need to ask?

What didn't he know, was the redhead looking at him quietly from the frame of the kitchen's door. Gaara followed Naruto. Of course he did, why wouldn't he want to do that? The blond sprung up so suddenly it was suspicious and secretive, so he decided he wanted to follow and see what was the blond going to do, especially because it concerned his daddy and when it came to daddy to just recent thing made it all very strange. And, as every kid, Gaara liked to look into holes that weren't exactly lightened or dim at all. Even if daddy said not to. Curiosity was just great like that.

But never greater than the possibility of danger. He watched the blond cuddle to the older man in desperate, needy hug and didn't move or announce his presence like he usually did. First – because his teddy was still having a full tummy of suspicious things that never were suspicious but they suddenly came and from what he knew, their relevance would make everything go worse (and that was the last thing he wanted) and second – because this looked like alone time. And he knew very well what alone time was.

It meant only him and daddy and no Kankuro or Temari or anyone else – maybe besides the moments when they knocked to doors or rang the phone. But usually it was alone. And as rare it was, Gaara felt very, very unhappy when someone disturbed those short moments of tenderness. Sure, he got more of them than his siblings, mostly because of his ability to cry out loud when Kankuro and Temari were older and therefore – crying was shameful for them, but still, he needed more. Most likely he rarely had enough of closeness. He didn't know why. It was just that the world seemed to be cold. And dark, even if there was many lights on and many colors, like in kindergarten. He always felt a lack.

Sometimes he looked around, wondering if it wasn't a big dog wandering after him when no one was watching because it was like if someone whom he couldn't see was creeping over him, but usually no one was there. But it never really went away – the possibility of something scary. He didn't know what it was. But he didn't want to. Usually, when it came too dark, he just ran up to daddy and stayed near him. In daddy's shadow nothing else shone over him. Or his arms. So everything was good there. And that was not to be interrupted.

So, after looking up for a moment at the pair, he moved away from the door, wandering through the rooms with teddy in his arms, not bothering to hold him properly as now it was heavier and more susurrus. Dangling paws never really bothered him anyway. He learned to walk with him like that when he was younger. When you were smaller, there was no such thing as paws that were not on the floor, dangling in front or behind you.

After a moment of looking around, he spotted a small noise coming from Naruto's room, so he followed it without much thinking and crept after it until he found the source. And it was, as he expected, Temari. In the closet.

'What are you doing?' he asked, opening the door and starring at the blonde. As Temari looked up at him with puffy eyes and snot coming from her nose, he didn't wait for an answer and climbed up, sitting at the other end of the space and closing the wooden wings after himself. Insides of the furniture really were warm and dark.

'Go'way.' mumbled Temari, looking at him, and when he only blinked, hugging the plush more to himself, she hid her head in her knees again, ignoring him. He didn't press. She was the oldest, he was the youngest. Youngest brothers were not to bother oldest sisters. That was Kankuro's job.

And speaking of him, after a few minutes of silent sitting and breathing into the warm, dusty air, the doors of the closet opened again, showing a very strangely painted face, this time on fluorescent green.

'Hey, what's happening?' he asked, looking inside. Gaara looked at him, curling protectively around the teddy, but Kankuro didn't seem to be hostile anymore (or at least not yet) so there was no sudden movement from him 'Can I join in?'

And without useless words, he climbed in, once again closing all of them inside a darkened pit of clothy nowhereness.

'It's warm in here.' he said, not looking at the redhead. Gaara looked at the door, then at the floor. Yes, yes it was. 'What are we doing?'

'Waitin.' he said, giving into the old habit he was already made to be forgotten, but sometimes it just came back and started sucking on his thumb. Kankuro didn't turn to him. Temari didn't react.

'Waiting?' he repeated after a moment of stretching silence. The dust swirled in the air 'Waiting for what?'

'Who knows.' said Temari in rasped voice, looking up a bit 'Maybe nothing.'

'What? Nothing? But that's useless!' said the brunet. Gaara blinked and started stroking the teddy, making him crunch with new sounds. He didn't find it useless. But not really useful too. 'Dad is going to come for us soon…'

'I could just stay like that forever.' whispered Temari hiding her face in her knees again. Both boys looked at her for a moment. Then, Kankuro leaned on the dark wooden wall behind him.

'Indeed, it's nice in here.' he muttered, not specifically to anyone. Gaara nodded, mostly because of being too afraid of Kankuro to speak, but too courageous to not answer at all. Teddy lied on the redhead, allowing him to pick up invisible germs from his invisible head and making new rustling noises. Gaara simply breathed. It was so peaceful here, in the middle of nowhere. Nobody knew where they are. Nobody existed besides them. And somehow, in the sole centre of the worst shadow, no fear brushed against his heart.

It only felt really, really sad. Because there was no daddy or mommy. But he knew they were going to be with them, sooner or later. So why did it feel so sad now? He didn't know. Nobody of their three knew. But they didn't want to know. So they sat in silence. Because if you can't see anyone, no one you can see exists. So it was peaceful.

It took Minato much longer than he would have liked to get calmed enough to let go of his soon, and then he just felt dirty. He felt bad about the searching, worried glance the little blond gave him, hated himself for giving Naruto such a huge responsibility, when he should have been the one comforting him, and not the other way around. But he couldn't help it. He'd never had been able to. Kushina might have been able to laugh it off, punch him in the arm and tell him to leave being a woman to her as she had come with all the required bits for it, but she wasn't there anymore. The headache was back with vengeance, though.

'I'm ok, kitlet.' he forced a more or less convincing smile and got up with Naruto still clinging to his chest, neither making a movement to let go. In this state, he looked around for his glasses until he found them and quickly put them back on, unconsciously falling into the habit of hiding how bad he looked. It was then that he noticed the unnatural quietness of the department. 'Where's everyone…?'

Naruto pulled away from him enough to look around curiously.

'Gaara…?' he called out. 'Kids?'

Three siblings looked at the door simultaneously.

'They're calling us.' said Kankuro.

'Yes.' added Temari, brushing off a trail of tears, leaving the other. Gaara perked up, hearing Naruto calling him, but he didn't call back. Neither of them made any movement or gesture of wanting to go out from the closet. It felt good in there. Silence stretched.

The redhead kept on looking at the door, but the atmosphere was too lazy to make him answer. Even if the responding call was starting to bubble in the back of his throat with the speed of the soda drink that could bubble up to the sky only if he blew in the straw long and hard enough. His siblings didn't react either, though two pairs of eyes kept on looking at the door of the closet with much more observance now.

It was roughly three minutes later than the closet doors finally opened, revealing the oldest blond staring concernedly inside. The expression calmed down into relief at the sight of the huddled kids.

'What are you guys doing here...?'

'Waitin.' said Gaara honestly, repeating his previous answer. He didn't really know what for or why, but it seemed to sound just right to say that. So he did. Kankuro shrugged and Temari played with a strand of her hair.

'Playing in the dark.' she said, not really telling the truth but not lying either. It sounded like a good reason to give 'Something's happened?'

Minato stilled for a moment, then reached and patted her hair.

'That's what I came to ask. Are you okay?'

'Yes, we are okay.' she said, looking up at him with completely dried out and hardened eyes. Gaara stopped huddling his teddy and looked up at the pat with curiosity. Kankuro still looked as disinterested, but he managed to glue his eyes onto the man. 'Are you?'

'Because you don't seem to be.' was added by brunet. Gaara just kept starring.

Minato patted him in the head this time.

'I just…' he trailed off, then slowly smiled. 'I didn't sleep much last night.'

He offered them a hand.

'Come on out of there, it's stuffy and you might faint if you stay too long. If you want to sleep, you can go lay on my bed.'

The kids looked at each other without much convenience, but the redhead was quicker than anyone of them. He grabbed the hand of the blond.

'Okay.' he said, looking up at him with wide eyes 'But only with you.'

Other kids looked up at him, feeling it was the moment to protest, but somehow, the words didn't come. It just felt like a very good idea, after years of having Gaara sleeping with daddy and not really sharing… it would be good to be hugged by someone bigger like that. So yes, yeah, why not, sure… even if it wasn't daddy or mommy it still looked like a nice idea. So they didn't protest. Only looked up, waiting for answer. Gaara kept gazing up.

'You need sleep if you don't sleep.' he recited smoothly the words daddy told him when he was protesting against going to bed 'Don't worry, I will be near. We all will.' He added quickly, seeing that he was not alone in the idea. And waited. Those were daddy's words. If they didn't work then nothing did. But because it was daddy's, it just had to work. Because daddy was awesome like that.

'Oh, no, nono, please.' The blond tried to pull away, realized what he was doing and did his best to look less like if he were panicking. 'Listen, please.'

And this was just awful. He could see it in his mind. The father driving the kids away, supremely pissed off at him for what hadn't really been his fault (only it had been) and asking what they had done. And then any of the kids say that nothing much, just had some weird soup, played around and then they all piled in the man's bed with the man in it and slept all together. And that, if nothing else, would warrant a meeting with the so mentioned axe.

'…I'm not tired now. If I sleep now I won't sleep at night and I'll be having weird sleeping patterns all week. Adults don't need sleeping as much as kids do… You can sleep with Naru, if you want to?' Naruto despised having naps, that being the main reason he made sure to keep him in a strict schedule that ensure he'd knock out and sleep through the night. But after what had happened, he doubted the little blonde would complain about it. He could trust Naruto on that.

The kids looked at him with disappointment, but they didn't argue. They knew better than to try to discuss with an adult. It was impossible to outsmart someone that was already smarter than you.

'Okay.' said Gaara, not letting go of the said hand and crawling out of the closet. Opportunity to sleep with Naruto was just as nice if not nicer – he knew that warmth already. He could agree to that. A nice sleep would do good them all. But his siblings didn't move.

'We're not sleepy.' ,uttered Temari, looking at the floor and not moving an inch.

'Not at all.' added Kankuro, also unmoving 'We're not little kids like him.' By 'him' he clearly meant Gaara. The quiet coldness still rang in his voice, the chilly edge reaching him clearly. The redhead unconsciously gripped the hand a little tighter, along with teddy. Now he just wanted to leave them as fast as possible. The older blond squeezed the hand back carefully.

'In that case, you should probably do your homework.' he told them, keeping the door open for the older kids so they would finally come out of the large piece of furniture. 'I can help you a bit if you need it.' Gaara and Naruto were too young to have anything more complicated than occasionally needing to bring things like glitter or colored paste, but as far as he remembered, one already started getting healthy doses of homework when you started primary school. That should take more or less the hour or hour and a half that would be a healthy time to wake the smaller kids up, and then he'd give them something to eat and leave them watching a movie or something attention grabbing enough for him to be able to talk with their father again, maybe beg a little while he was at it. Whatever it took to convince the man to forget what he'd say and convince him not to place a restraining order on him. It was getting colder by the day and darker much sooner, and just thinking about a small kid like Gaara left alone in that state…

'Gaara, where were you?' His son, who had been going around the house trying to find the redhead, nearly tackled him with the force he threw himself at him. 'I was worried!'

'In Narnia.' That wasn't a lie. It was something different from it actually, because it was neither light or cold or white, but he liked it just as he liked the imaginary country he had occasion to watch a bit of it in the shop centre near the shelf with TVs and DVDs where daddy left him and Temari to go have 'alone time' with Kankuro at doctor's (though he didn't know why Kankuro didn't seem to be happy about it, but since the movie was interesting and since it was nice and warm there he assumed it was good to not protest. And it seemed Temari also had the same intentions.

And besides, closets were magic, right?

'It was okay, but I'm sleepy now. Your daddy says we can sleep together…' The words were followed by a hug and a murmur against Naruto as the teddy didn't squeeze in-between them this time. Kankuro and Temari looked at the scene from affair.

'Homework sucks.' said Kankuro finally, walking away, not even glancing at his schoolbag. Temari didn't answer to neither, just marched right to it and took out the flute she didn't manage to play on today since her name was starting on letter 'S' and they ended up on 'O'. Pineapple head played a little too well for her tastes even if he said he didn't understand what he was doing. In that case she had to practice some more. After a moment, the whole house was filled with slow squeaks of 'Mary had a little lamb' that maybe could sound like real melody somewhere in twenty years after. Now they just remained what they were – slow squeaks.

'It does.' the older blond agreed, a little more in his own territory of parent-hood 'But that's why it's convenient to get it done as fast as possible.'

He glanced at the pair as Gaara snuggled against his son in that needy, affectionate way and wondered how much of the boy's fluctuating persona and need of attention stemmed from the lack of sleep. He hadn't asked the father, but if the rings around his eyes were any sort of clue, Gaara had problems with sleeping. Naru had told him that Gaara often had really weird, scary dreams so he didn't sleep much. The redhead often felt into light dozing while under his care, too.

Again, he thought of the little redhead, alone, waiting to be picked up as the sun settled. He thought about his siblings too, but it was easier to picture Gaara. He had actually seen it, after all.

'Narnia? Like in the books?' His daddy had read them to him. Well, all of them until the third one. As soon as he had learnt the third book was the last time Lucy and Edmund would come there and that he wouldn't get to know if Caspian Married the star-lady, he'd been a little leery of the next couple books, and still wasn't sure he wanted to read them. The comment was immediately followed by a face as Naruto was ready to protest against the idea of taking a nap –really, it was only five in the afternoon, he didn't want to go nap when there was a little sunlight left- but the warm weight pressing against him and his father's slightly anxious eyes convinced him. Besides, Gaara was scared of sleeping alone and rested better if he felt another person close. 'Ok… let's go to my daddy's bed, your sister makes a lot of noise.'

Gaara nodded, and without a protest, he followed the blond to another room, where a big bed, just the size of his daddy's bed, waited for them both. For a moment he wondered why all daddies needed such big beds for themselves, but it seemed it was all because they were adults. Adults always had to have a little more since they knew better. And besides – where would daddy cuddle to him and his siblings if the bed would be smaller? So it was probably Naruto's daddy had Naruto also.

He shut off the faint sounds of Temari's scary imitation of dying bird that was once played out in the radio drama (she was far more accurate than they were in the radio) and pushed teddy under covers along with himself. It was a nice bed. Smelled of something foreign, but it was soft and so on. And Naruto was warm just enough to recompensate for cold sheets.

'Nighty.' he murmured against the blond's cheek as he closed his eyes, holding with one arm on his teddy and with other on Naruto. Now that felt like a bed of Goldilocks… Just right size and with right person near him. After a few moments, he was running after dwarfs in the forest like he always wanted to if he ever spotted one.

In the meantime, Minato had gone after the older ones, and mostly refrained from giving constructive criticism simply because the little girl had such a decide, frustrated expression that made her look a lot like her father, despite her softer and definitely feminine expressions. He supposed she took the most after her mother, unlike Kankuro who really looked like a brunet version of his father... Thinking about the kid's father reminded him he had majorly screwed up and made him sit down and nervously leaf through his papers, not really reading any of the content, so he didn't spend too much time at it. He decided to work with dinner instead, even if it was too early.

The numbers had increased after all. Considering the amount of people and not knowing if he wanted to risk introducing vegan cuisine into the older kids especially today, he decided to go with some pasta, universally liked by 99.4% of kids. So he just needed to make the sauce and make sure he made a big enough pot so he would have enough leftovers...

Kankuro observed it from affair. The blond seemed to be so concentrated on playing with bigger machines of his own he didn't even notice that his lecture made little to zero effects. Sure, he could listen to it but that didn't mean doing it. There were many more interesting things to do when one was warm and not really hungry instead of playing with math or boring geography. Like playing with Karasu. A big mortal battle. For… infinity! And… justice! And… for his family! Because his family was in danger! He, as a great big brother Kankuro had to protect his little brother and his older sister who suddenly got scared (even if she in reality never really did)! And even his dad who was impressed by his abilities! Ta-daaah, he against the… the…

He looked around, searching for the source of mortal danger, but seeing only a floor and the carpet. Everything was peaceful. Why there was never any danger when he needed one? He wanted to be a hero, dang it! With a feeling of disappointment he clacked with his doll on the floor, when something caught his eye. Something small. But living. And moving. Exactly toward him. There it was! The mortal danger!

'Fear not!' he shouted, laying on the floor in a position of crouching tiger. Well, more of a crouching cat in his place 'There comes the mortal danger the great… great…' he thought for a moment 'Bug-man! The great big shallow bug man is coming for our lives! But I will save you! I with my ultimate puppet skills and master of doll's ninjutsu will save the day!... Ha!'

With that he pointed at the small crawling bug with one wooden arm, not impressing it at all. But to him it seemed to be different already.

'A-ha! So you're preparing for battle!' he shouted, making the puppet clatter, he got up, circling the indifferent insect and pointing with it at it 'There's so many of you, multiplying, but I'm not scared! I, the greatest master of puppet jutsu that ever was… say you stand back! Many knives no jutsu! Ha!'

He made the figure clatter more and point to a numb piece of metal from it insides, but the insect still kept crawling on its own direction, not minding the big scary master of the puppets above him. It was probably impressed by his art of hiding in the surroundings and blending so well with the leaves! No wonder, he had the ultimate green mask of victory on his face! It was time to take out his greatest weapon!

'You fool!' he said in might tone, stepping on insect's way. The bug kept crawling forward despite that 'You thought you can harm my siblings and my dad! But you were wrong! Look what I have for you! There's no escape from my great deathly poisoning jutsu! Here!'

With that he made the doll fall forward, and pressed the little button in it, making it hiss with light cologne he took from his father's toilet's cosmetics. For a moment the insect stopped, making him want to dance the serious victory dance, but then…

…it was a flying insect. And it decided to fly out of the poisoning clouds despite him standing on his way. So it flew straight on his leg.

'Eew!' shouted Kankuro, trying to brush it off as it just started crawling forward like if nothing has happened 'What are you- No, no, get offa me, get off!...'

He tossed the doll at it but missed, making it fall out of his reach as he jumped around further from it. Now he didn't even see where the insect was but he was sure it kept on crawling up his pants. He was very sure of it.

'This can't be happening!' he shouted and fell on his side, trying to reach the places he thought the insect reached, and moving around like if he was actually on fire 'No! No! They're multiplying! It's all over me! No, ahhhhhh!'

Such a scary battle and he was losing! How could this be? And during his very scary ideas of how could this be he missed the fact the insect, after crawling up his pant leg just simply flew off of him and crawled on the carpet again in its own direction, not even interested with what the strange creature that never was there during its hatching from egg was doing. Humans were not its business after all. So it crawled away in peace while Kankuro fought a losing battle with no weapons near his hands. What a shameful lose!...

Minato didn't particularly enjoy cooking. In the old days, when it had been just him and Kushina, they rarely had time to actually cook what they ate in-between multiple jobs and mostly survived in daily basis of instant food and leftovers from his future wife's waitress jobs. When things started finally looking up for them, Kushina had been as surprised as he was by her own skills at the kitchen, and really, most of what he had learned had been from his spine pent with her.

But that had been before he became a vegetarian, when his lovely little wife decided that if he wanted to eat turnips, he was going to do it by himself, because she and the little pod growing in her stomachic had no interest on sparing any of the cows roaming the land. Survival of the fittest, according to Kushina. Give enough time to the cows and they would evolve and take over the world and sacrifice us to their bovine God.

Apparently, letting her read Carlos Orsi Martinho's work hadn't been the best idea he'd had, but at least she had helped him learn the basics of how to handle a stove, even if he'd never quite managed to do it without having small accidents. But hey, that's what electric dicers were for, clumsy widower's fingers. Good thing too, because it seemed like if nowadays food couldn't be made without having insane amounts of fat, salt, hormones… Liking it or not, he'd rather work on what he ate and make sure his son was eating healthily.

He had already finished dicing the onions, peppers, carrots and tomatoes and added the tomato juice, leaving a nice, thick, deep red pot full of sauce simmering and was leaving the kitchen to try and find where among the mini jungle he'd left the bay leaves drying, when he caught the brunet jumping around what seemed to be some sort of small scarab. He watched in interest, momentarily unaware of the continuous and not really improved squeaks coming from the flute. No wonder the kid went to a special school. With that imagination and that kind of artistic ability… Though he had only taken a little over fifteen minutes to get the sauce done.

'Kankuro.' he asked, leaving the partially hidden spot of the kitchen frame, and closing the door behind him so the smell of the sauce wouldn't get everywhere. 'Did you finish your homework already?'

'Aaaah, they're crawling up my pan-…! Uh?' The brunet suddenly snapped out from his vision and looked up at the blond like if he suddenly broke on the theatre scene with a big fat sausage instead of a supposed knife and decided to ask him if he needed some help. The insects flew away without the single trace of being anywhere. Only him and the nice warm floor and Karasu a few centimeters away. He scrambled up his feet.

'Uh, homework, homework, that is…' he started mumbling like if he couldn't really tell what exactly was homework and since when such documents existed 'I don't recall having any at all.' he said, closing one eye and smiling at the blond with a playful expression. Oh he recalled having much. He always had many, many more and today Mr. Gekkou once again gave him the punishment essay for thinking up yet another – marvelous in his opinion – ending for 'Cinderella's story' that scared a few girls and made him look like if he didn't read the book (but why aliens couldn't show up on Prince's ball and kidnap the glass shoe? It was so boring! And Cinderelly should've have some cool magic buggy with pegasus's instead of normal horses – they were magic, weren't they? And why Drizzella couldn't be a brother? Three sisters – there was a lack of balance there at all). But writing up yet another screen play of another fairy tale which no one would ever make was not fun at all. Mr. Gekkou didn't like them too – last time he adapted Beauty and The Beast to the African's climates on the desert and made the Beast an almighty psycho with a monster inside instead outside and Beauty to be a complete nuts instead of just a girl reading books he was told… well, he didn't really know what was said to him. Mr. Gekkou got all red and blue and then the lesson had to be called off because the words that were trying to go past his lips during coughing were just simply unreadable.

'I don't have to do anything.'

And there was no dad to make him tell the truth. So he could… not tell it. It wasn't a lie. Just a play. Like on the scene. Not lie at all.

But the man had only kept starring at him without any change of expression.

Kankuro stared back, but his smile was slowly dimming. He looked at the floor and got a hold on his puppet, closing another eye and smiling at the blond with a fake scene play he perfected to his own needs. 'What?'

'Your father usually comes pick you up late.' the blond said, not moving from his relaxed position. 'And I assume you go to bed afterwards. It would be better for you to do your homework now...' he hesitated a little, the smile turning more nervous and pleading 'Please? You are under my care and I sort of left a bad impression in your father. I need all the help I can get if you guys still want to come over...'

Kankuro immediately stopped smiling, looking at the blond with confusion. What was the man saying? Bad impression? Why?

'But you didn't do anything bad.' he said, showing up his puppet 'Right, Karasu?'

The puppet clacked with its wooden jaw.

'Karasu says you didn't.' he said, smiling at him. Then his face fell into confusion once again. 'Is this our fault? It is, right?'

The older blond's expression became more strained. How could these kids be so nice to him after what he'd just done?

'No, Kankuro… It… it was all my fault. I said some things I shouldn't have.'

Kankuro kept looking at the blond, pulling on strings of his puppet. The blond did something bad? But he was Naruto's dad! The famous Naruto's dad that could do everything and make a magic come out of his hat and all… he said something bad?

'Why did you do it?' he asked, still feeling lost in this situation 'Don't you like our dad?'

'…I don't think he likes me.' the older man said, reaching to gently ruffle the dark hair of the little boy. 'You are his kids and I'm just a stranger he met a few months ago. It's normal for him to be worried about me spending too much time with you, and I guess I took what he said badly and answered even worse…'

'But you're not bad at all.' said Kankuro, wondering how such a man could be mistaken by someone bad. He wasn't. Of course, he had strange rules like not eating with family or letting them eat in front of TV, but he was not bad at all. Maybe it was the wrong stenography? 'Dad is just like that. He seems like if he didn't like anyone, but I know that deep inside he likes all of us.' he said, pointing at himself and two other rooms where his siblings could be found. He lowered his voice.

'He said so himself so it all is just a cover. So don't be fooled, dad is a good actor.' he said with a smile. But as it didn't help much, he frowned and reached out his hand. 'You're not bad at all, I'll show you.' He added, pointing at the blond to lower himself to his level as he couldn't grow wings and fly higher. Minato made an odd face, feeling as if he would have another episode and simply burst into tears- why did people assume he was a good person? He wasn't. he ruined everything he did, even though he tried so hard... After a moment of hesitance, Minato gave the kid his hand and kneeled down to his height.

Kankuro looked at him with a serious expression and squeezed at the hand to be sure the man was not going to run away. And after a moment he reached up and patted the blond hair in a 'good doggy' manner. He didn't know if it was done the right way, but Akamaru never really protested against it and neither did Gaara so it was probably how it should have been done. After a moment of hesitance, he stroked the blond hair for a moment longer.

'See?' he said, taking back his hand 'You don't have horns. Even that little.' he said, showing him something close to half of the centimeter 'So you're not a bad person. Just go and say sorry and it will be all right.'

The last words were made in a low, shy bubbling laughter hidden in a voice of serious face that turned into a sly smile. Then, suddenly, Kankuro made a move to catch the man in a quick hug and ran away, leaving clacking noises behind.

'Going to do my boring and useless homework, you'd better come later and check if all my exercises are done good!' he shouted during the rustling of his bag as he just turned it upside down and made the whole insides of it fall on the floor. Then he just sat down where he was standing and started looking through it.

'Daddies are busy, don't interrupt his work!' said Temari, stopping her play and looking up from the door frame at the boy. Kankuro smiled at her.

'Like you?'

A moment later the tormented squeaks of dying bird were heard in the whole house with twice as hard volume and just as much effort put on it. Gaara stirred in his sleep for a moment, thinking about some very vicious and bad cat tormenting the poor baby bird. And he slipped into dreams once again.

Minato was left staring after the little kid, surprised by the sudden hug and even more by the fact he complied with the request, especially when it was obvious he didn't want to. And the way he'd patted his head… was it supposed to be a joke? And calling to the job was a bad idea… what could he do now? He wouldn't dare to just go straight to the man if he wanted to take the kids away and try to stop him, he needed to have at least some sort of attempt at approach… He slowly got back to his feet, staring after the room the kids were sleeping in. Bay leaves… He needed to find them before the sauce got too hot to properly get the flavors.


	11. 11: Sachets

Sabaku no Daichi on was having his hands full of work. Still. Of course, he ended his running around after another hour, but that didn't make it any better for him. After a short (shorter than usual) break where he let his mind think about things he didn't want to think – he got back to sit down over the columns of numbers and started tracking them, like a detective trying to find a sign of a criminal on the place of the crime. It was a tiring and fruitless job and he was aware of it as the third hour passed away without finding anything wrong in the book and feeling his eyes going blurry already for that time of the day. He moved out of his chair and looked out of the window. It was slowly getting dark.

He couldn't stop thinking about kids. Not literally as his mind was full of numbers right now, but the idea and fear about them kept on gnawing at the back of his mind like a fiery breath of the dragon who only waited to cook him on its fiery breath starting from his feet. He felt the unease, but he couldn't get out of the office yet. He massaged his eyes. For the love of gods, he hoped they were okay.

And so, Daichi got back to work. After another twenty minutes of no effects, suddenly his personal cell phone beeped at him with the short text message. Not that he was expecting any. But even if it was a stupid advert it was worth looking at. Everything was better than those numbers in the right order that kept staring back at him, one eye per sign. He clicked the phone open and read the message.

The moment of silence followed. Later tonight?...

'Before or after midnight?' he asked himself as he knew very well that his work didn't let him out earlier. He clicked off the phone. He didn't intend to talk to the blond. Just taking his kids away and walking out would be good enough. They lived alone together and it was all right. Not very, very good, but all right. With him it became better, but it didn't mean they couldn't live without a stalker. Without another thought he got back to his work.

#+#+#+#+#+#

It was a little less than two hours before Minato quietly walked to the room the smaller kids were in and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at them in silence for a few moments. Naruto was sleeping in that wide-spread, open and relaxed position so common in him, a small line of drool dribbling down his chin. Gaara was a pale, red-haired ball curled against his son's side, the teddy clutched possessively against his chest. The image was so cute he was tempted to go get his camera and take a picture, but considering the recent conversations and the fact he still had to get an answer from the man… No, taking pictures wouldn't really help his case at all.

'Naru? Gaara?'

He brushed his son's forehead lightly, pulling away the messy strands.

'Time to wake up, kitlets.'

Gaara slowly opened one of his eyes, looking up at the blond, not really understanding why did he saw him in the first place. Could it be another part of a dream?... If that so… With a whimper he curled tighter around the teddy and nuzzled onto Naruto's side, hiding his face from the world. There. Better.

His son just made a low, complaining noise and curled to the side, burying his head on the redhead's hair, which smelled ramenish… If Minato had been gifted with the wonders brought by the possession of an uterus and the accompanying ovaries- that is, if the levels of estrogen in his body had been radically higher- he would probably have whimpered from the adorable image. As it was, he just chuckled lightly and shook the pair a little more insistently.

'Kids, come on.'

Gaara finally cracked open both of his eyes and looked up at Minato, propping his head on Naruto's side, but not doing any movement that could lead to getting up. He felt too good in that position.

'Sleepy.' he muttered truthfully in tired voice and blinked, looking at Minato, The man had five seconds to explain the wonders of universe that made him wake the redhead up. After that his eyes would close and throw him into a slumber once again.

'I know, love.' Minato said, taking the much less responsive Naruto and throwing him over a shoulder, not really causing much of a reaction besides blue eyes snapping open for a moment before squeezing shut. 'But if you sleep too long now, you won't be able to sleep at night.'

He offered a hand to the redhead.

'Besides, your siblings are about to finish their homework. It's time for a snack for you all.'

Gaara sat up after seeing he was left with no body to be warmed against and blinked sleepily, looking at the hand like if it was a completely new object in his world. Then he hugged his teddy, liking the new crunchy noise already and he grabbed the palm, getting up.

'Okay.' he said with a yawn, not really registering what he agreed for, but the word 'snack' didn't sound very harmful and even a little tasty, so why not to check what it was? Not bothering to find his shoes he walked after Minato to the room where he led them.

The bigger table had already been mostly cleaned off the various books and schoolbag items, and there was a small bag with cookies in the middle of it, along with the plastic individuals to avoid have the table stained. Minato waited long enough to deposit his still mostly unresponsive son in front of it (Naruto staggered a little to the side, but managed to hold an upright position) and disappeared in the kitchen. When he reappeared, he carried a tray with four steaming mugs, and two of them even were the cups that Temari and Kankuro had singled out the last time.

'Careful, they're hot.'

Kankuro giggled, looking at Gaara who kept staring at him mug, obviously not believing he was seeing the same stripped cat from before and took it smiling at Gaara. Temari didn't even touch hers, but only because she was told it was hot. Gaara kept looking at the delicate flowers on it like if he saw a fairy and looked at his plain, white mug curiously. It didn't look very special. He looked at the side. Even Naruto was having a nice cup. He looked at his own again. Nope, no changes at all. It seemed that he was singled out yet once again. His face fell.

'That's a nice cup you have, teddy.' he spoke then looked at Minato 'And where is mine?'

It took a few seconds for Minato to understand what Gaara could mean by that, as him pretending the food was for teddy only happened rarely nowadays – and most usually, when he wanted to ask for something and for some reason didn't quite dare. Wordlessly, he grabbed the little redhead and picked him up, walking to the kitchen with him in one arm and the plain mug in the other one. Stupid him, singling kids out like that hadn't been the smartest of choices.

'Let's pick a mug for you, Gaara.' he said, opening the cabinet where he kept the mugs and cups and allowing the little redhead to make his choice straight from it.

Gaara leaned on the shoulder he was kept on, circling his hands around the neck of the man almost instinctively as he touched his chin with his forehead (still covered, so he couldn't feel the light beard scrapping at his skin). Naruto's dad really had a big choice of mugs there. It was hard to decide. After a moment of peaceful thought he saw a hexagon-like tall glass in many rich red shaped hearts all over it. Red. He liked red. And red hearts over the transparent square-y glass was also looking fun…

'That one.' he muttered, pointing at it. Naruto's dad really had a big choice of mugs there. But he already knew that.

Minato smiled and carefully reached for the mug, settling all his concentration on doing it right. He did have a large collection of mugs. Mostly because he killed them as often as he bought new ones. It was an odd week in which he didn't have to mourn the loss of a mug. It was simply because he liked to drink coffee or tea while he read, and when he did it, it was when he was his most distracted. He'd forget where the mug is and reach for it- that was the main reason he had removed the carpet from under the living room's coffee table. It hadn't survived the first month with him.

He transferred the chocolate milk from the plain mug to the new one, then went back to the living room with the redhead and his newly acquired mug, leaving him in the same place he had been in previously. Once all kids were seated on the floor and he made sure they had enough for a proper snack, he checked his cell phone for a reply again. Empty. Ignoring how bad that seemed to be, he smiled at the small group.

'By the way, I made pasta… I hope you all like it…?'

'Hooray!' was Kankuro's warrior's cry as he brought his hands up in a victory along with Karasu and Kuroari in them. He felt hungry after writing those stupid essays (this time he wrote little mermaid getting married to ocean witch with happily ever after to everyone, so he was pretty sure that the teacher would be happy at last) and the smell of faint sauce was not leaving his nostrils for the past half an hour. Temari made a face at his toys.

'Not at the table, stupid!'

'Hey, they're hungry too!' he shot back at her. She looked at him like if he was… well, stupid.

'They can't be hungry. They're t o y s.' she said slowly, like if he was dumb. He grinned at her.

'Well, he is too but he got his own cup.' he said, pointing at the teddy, who was now left without a cup, but that was beside the point. Gaara looked up with his green eyes to look at teddy 'Or maybe you want to tell me teddy is just a toy too?'

Temari opened her mouth, but then Gaara made a face like if someone was about to hit him, so she shut them and just pouted into her flowery cup. Almost like at argument with pineapple head.

'Maybe they're not just toys.' she said finally with mighty tone as plate full of vaporizing pasta landed in front of her 'But they're as stupid as their owner.'

'Hey!'

She managed to stick out the tongue at him, but that was it as Kankuro just shrugged, stuffing his cheeks with portion of pasta and sauce. There was not much to say. So she also dug in. After a few minutes, the bell on the doors rang. Gaara rose his head, looking at the door like an expecting dog. Temari and Kankuro immediately sunk in their seats. Of course they knew that short and harsh push of a button. They could recognize it everywhere, no matter what kind of bell was behind it. Daddy.

Minato apparently had recognized it too, because he stopped pretending he was eating what little was in his plate, which was practically the same as he had when he'd first sat down after making sure Naruto and Gaara had their pasta cut to easy-to-handle-bits and the older pair didn't need similar treatment. In fact, save for a noodle or two, and the fact he had poked it around his plate for the past five minutes, you could say it was exactly the same amount.

'I'll get that… Keep eating, please.' he told them, trying to smile reassuringly. And failing. He didn't have time to fix it, mostly because if he tried he would very likely have even more disastrous results. So he just got up from his position in the floor and walked down the small halfway, pausing just long enough to grab his glasses and put them on before opening the door.

From behind the door, a very sour face of Daichi greeted him. Or not. More like it was the only greeting he had.

'I came for my kids.' he said grimly, crossing his hands tightly and staring at the man like if he fed him off lemons for half of his life. Then, without a moment of hesitance, he just stepped in, pushing the blond aside and walked to the lightened room not even caring to take off his shoes.

'Kids!' he said in higher tone. Trio of siblings rose their heads and waited in a middle of the munch for an order that was about to come. 'Gaara! Temari! Kankuro! It's me, I came to take you home!'

Kankuro and Temari looked at each other and made faces that pointed out that it would hurt and how much it would probably hurt. They gulped down the bits in their mouths and looked at the door. Just to see Daichi entering.

'There you are.' he said, looking at them with glare that was anything but warm 'Pack your things, we're going home. Now.'

Minato had tried to say something when the kid's dad first appeared, but as he was showed to the side, he closed his mouth and just stared after him, slowly closing the door behind him and leaning on it, burying his face on his hands. The little blond, who had been busy eating his spoonful of pasta turned around to stare at the older man that all of the sudden was invading his home.

'What? So soon?' he stared at the hallway, but there were no signs from his daddy. Which was really worrying. So worrying he had momentarily forgotten the man was to blame for everything bad that had happened. 'But we're all eating…!'

Daichi looked down at the blond kid, considering for a moment to tell him to shut up when adults were speaking or any other of those smart and completely uncomfortable adult sayings, but decided against it. As other parents would probably be glad to make it an evening without food as a punishment, he knew that value of the food was far much greater for them all. Especially as it was their last meal before he would get an idea how to buy things and cook them so they would all eat a proper f a m I l y dinner. He shot two of his oldest kids an angry look, then at Gaara, the same one but with lightened edges and leaned against the doorframe.

'Fine. Eat.' he said, looking in front of himself and turning his attention away from the table. It would be pointless to make a scene here as there would be plenty of time after that for it 'I will wait.'

Which meant actually 'eat as fast as you can or I will help you.' All kids caught up on it pretty quickly. Good.

Naruto seemed to catch up in the tone, kid's ears registering all kind of threatening undertones and with a frown the kid got up and started tottering towards the hallway leading to the door, very likely to see what had the man done to his father, but Minato appeared before he made it to the end of it and picked his son up, letting him hug tightly to him in relief. He clutched the small body back anxiously as he approached the boy's father.

'…would you like to eat, too? I made enough.' he asked, still regarding the older man with that strange look. As if it were a dog suspected of having rabies. Daichi looked at the blond, feeling something oddly familiar in the pose of this hug, but not putting a finger on it. It didn't seem to be important, though. The sour expression was back on his face.

'No, thanks.' he muttered quickly, turning his gaze away to look at his kids. All three of them ate at the quick pace, making the pasta disappear from the plates in a quick tempo. It was obvious Gaara would be the last one but he was not falling behind much 'I'll just wait for kids to eat and we will be on our way.'

A brief expression of hurt crossed the older blond's face, and he was glad he had put him glasses back on, because even he was aware of what he looked then.

'Please…' he said, his voice barely a murmur. Naruto looked at the older man from over an arm tightly wrapped around his father neck in a fierce expression that left perfectly clear that if he had claws or fangs, he'd be the prime subject to test them on 'I'm sorry for what I said. I overreacted, but what you said to me was…'

He faltered, not really knowing how to explain that accusing him of kidnapping and abuse was only one of the worst things you could have done to him. He took a small step back, not really seeming aware of it.

'…I'm sorry. But please don't take it out on them.'

Daichi slowly turned his head back to lock his eyes with Minato. The sour facial feature slowly melted into an indifferent calmness while the whites of his eyes let out an unnatural glint as he stared at the man.

'Let me get one thing straight with you.' he muttered in a murmur that could be heard only between them, not reaching the ears of kids at the table 'My kids broke the rule I made up for their own pleasures not thinking about consequences or possibilities why I even made it up. They just took the map you tossed into my house like a kid playing in some strange hide and seek and just went to your house. They could've been kidnapped, murdered, raped and gods only know what else. They could as well decide to jump off the roof on a small pool of water and luckily get into it. That's something that deserves not only punishment but a terminal banning. They have to understand that they cannot just do what they want like that. And I'm going to teach them in a way you might or might not like it. Which won't stop me from doing it.'

The eyes flashed at Naruto, catching his appearance for a moment and dismissing it as a detail, only to get back to blue eyes of Mr. Uzumaki.

'And one more thing.'

Finally, he let his hands slide down from his cross and let him uncurl the clasping fingers that were trying to tear through the material of his own coat. The man let go of a breath and took another, staring at the blond with hardened features. No more, no less, pure stone.

'I did not chose the life I live.' he said in a faint whisper, not changing the volume, but going through the tone a few tones higher 'You hear me? I did not decide to become a father who leaves his children for hours, screams at them and leans on the help of total strangers just to let them have some normal home!...'

Minato didn't answer, starring at the man in silence.

'But why do you think I'm doing all that? To not let them all die out there, to actually let them grow and grow up on right people unlike so many others! And that's hard with children I have! Temari is stubborn! Kankuro is careless! Gaara is naïve! If you didn't notice, I'm not rich like you, so I also don't have time for cuddling and mumbling sweet words to all of them! Life we lead is ruled by a harsh god and sets hard rules! We all need to toughen up for that, there's no other protection I can provide them! But… what would you know about it, right?'

There was a short pause for a sneer as Daichi looked at the floor with hopelessness glinting in his eyes. Then suddenly he jumped up with hostility in his eyes.

'Oh that's right, NOTHING!' he screamed out, pushing as much frustration into that word as he could, even if he knew there was much more sitting in him. The kids looked up from the table, paling with ultra speed tempo, looking at their father like if they saw a ghost. Daichi didn't even see that, but that was enough as he looked at the man, seeing he was not taking it too well. He looked at the floor, then turned his head aside, looking at the kids. The siblings immediately got back to eating. '…nothing. Leave us alone. We don't need you.'

The blond flinched back as the other started talking, clutching his son even more desperately, as if he were afraid the man would try to harm him. Which he might want to. He had always gotten a bad vibe out of the man. Despite how nice he had seemed to be the other day, he seemed violent and just plain mean, and reminded him a little too much of someone he would rather forget he had ever met, much less how he had affected his life. Not physically, the likeness wasn't there, Sabaku was shorter, bulkier and not nearly half as charismatic, it was something maybe in the way he looked at him when he was angry-

And oh, he was angry now.

'I…' he looked at him, at the kids, back at the shorter man that exuded hostility towards him and tried to will his mouth to work, his mind too caught out to seemingly be in the mood to cooperate with a proper argument. 'You... you are right… I don't know your situation.'

His hand fisted in the shirt his son was wearing, eyes narrowing behind the rimless glasses, the expression somehow more tired than angry because of how pale and unwell he looked.

'…but you don't know mine. You don't have any idea what my life is like, so don't assume it's easier than yours. You have… no idea...'

He trailed off, his breath slightly uneven despite the fact he hadn't done anything to warrant it, mouth tightening at another suddenly harder pang of pain from his head let itself know.

'I don't know the details of your situation… but I know you need help, or you will lose your kids. The kinder teacher already threatened you with calling the authorities, and if you do the same with the other two, how long do you think it will be before their teachers do the same? How are you going to explain to a child service assistance that you have to leave them alone all day because you have to work? *I* know that you do, I have been there. They won't understand it, they'll think you are a careless father that leaves their kids in the snow.'

Because it wasn't winter quite yet, but it would be in less than three weeks. And then what? Really, would he leave them for hours in the cold, without them having anything to eat?

'If you don't need me, then... I don't know.' he shrugged, his shoulder sagging in a tired gesture. 'I don't know. Whomever you need, then ask for their help. I'm sorry I intruded.'

Daichi winced like if someone was trying to push a pin under his nail, but didn't turn his head to the side to look at the blond. He was afraid. Afraid of all that he heard was true. Afraid of that what was said would come to reality sooner than later or at all. Afraid that if he would turn around and look into the face he didn't dare to observe by the corner of his eye, he'd break – fall on his knees or his fours and would literally break, holding on the pants of that crazy stranger and beg him to take care of his kids because if all that came true he just wouldn't do it, he wouldn't go through it, he wouldn't!...

But he didn't turn around. He didn't have to. He always managed to go along every pile of bad happenings that life threw at him. This time would be no different. He focused his eyes on kids. They sat, silent and pale, looking at their plates quietly like if they were afraid to move to not be touched by invisible electric wires. He straightened up.

'Are you done?' he asked, not even responding to the blond's talk. The kids nodded 'Good. Get your things, say goodbye and we will be going.'

He responded to every glance with a vigilant gaze and kept on looking at them, avoiding looking at the man like if he wasn't even there, which didn't last for long. Children were suspiciously fast as for them when it came to leaving this place.

'Say goodbye properly.' he muttered, catching half of the face of Naruto in the corner of his eye. Kankuro and Temari scurried away quickly, throwing quiet 'Byes'. Gaara took a little longer, hugging the boy and saying some unintelligible things. It seemed he was not really getting the seriousness of situation. Maybe that was better.

After checking the zipper on Gaara's coat he opened the door for kids, letting them go in front as he turned finally to the blond, looking at him like if the man was transparent and totally unimportant.

'Merry Christmas.' he murmured, clearly indicating to the upcoming winter 'And a Happy New Life.'

After that, the doors closed. So there. That was it. It was good as it lasted, but now, hello old life. He knew it couldn't last long. It was too beautiful to not be a dream. And those always were too frail to leave anything but echo of what he only could wonder if he would even have. Help? Of course. He would save themselves by himself. Alone. Somehow.

Minato stared after them, not attempting to go to the door and lock it as he usually did, just staying with Naruto plastered to him for several minutes. He waited until he heard the faint noise of a car starting somewhere four floors down and then waited some extra ten minutes while his son made no attempt to let go of him, despite the fact he wasn't even a bit sleepy and Minato was still clutching at him a little too tight.

Almost twenty minutes had passed before the blond finally broke out of paralysis with a near gasp, and he put his son down, going to lock the door and staring at the messy living room as he hugged himself, resisting the urge to do the same to Naruto again, as he needed to start moving. Eyeing the clock warily (10:20 P.M. still too early to call Jiraiya-sensei in Paris and he didn't even want to do that, didn't want to worry the older man after all he had done for him…) he moved to pick up the dishes, leaving his plate untouched and not really insisting other than to ask Naruto if he was sure he didn't want more before leaving the leftovers for some other day, maybe as stir fry (But in Fire country it was 3:38 P.M. now, so he might, he might be at the office…)

'Daddy…?'

His eyes left the clock to find his son with the juice bottle in his hand, eyeing him in a concerned expression that scared Minato. Not for the first time, he wondered how many of his problems he was making Naruto shoulder because of his own inability to handle them. Oh, he hated himself.

'What is it, love?' he asked, kneeling down to the little blond's height. Naruto hesitated, that concerned expression somehow growing as he suddenly reached for his necklace and started clutching at it nervously, a tight little fist squeezing the cylinder with enough force to make him relieved the material was silver and not crystal. He finally looked away.

'...are they going to come back?'

Minato winced, and not only because the question was harmful enough - because he knew what Naruto had asked wasn't what he really had wanted to. He pretended not to notice.

'…I doubt it, baby." Naruto didn't flinch, just frowned even more.

'…and Gaara?' Minato didn't' know what to answer to that. So he just pulled his son by the fist he kept on the necklace and hugged him, this time trying to offer comfort rather than taking it. Naruto was a stiff little figure before the first five seconds, then relaxed and molded against him, small tremors going down his small frame, but no other sound save the occasional sniffle. He wondered how much of that was his fault, too.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'Sarutobi-sensei's office, how may I help you?'

Minato felt a mixed sense of relief and shame at the well-known voice of the secretary, but at least he knew the old man had to be in the office.

'Good Afternoon, Ayame-san.' he said, his own words sounded strange in the Fire country dialect after only half a year of almost not using it. He had tried to speak in the Wind country dialect as often as possible so Naruto would get used to it faster for when they moved. 'It's Uzumaki Minato… I'm sorry for calling so early, but I really needed to talk to sensei-'

'Uzumaki-san!' the woman said in a delighted tone. 'How good to hear of you again. How are you? How did Naruto-kun take the moving?'

He looked down at the unresponsive form of his son sprawled on his chest, maybe sleeping, maybe just listening to the soothing drone of his voice.

'Rather well. Much better than I had hoped. We are just having… a bit of a rough time.'

'Ah, don't worry for it, that happens to everyone.' The young woman said confidently. 'Just as soon as you get down of the hype of figuring what services you need and where to leave all the things you want and get to tame down the new house- bam, the issues start to pile.'

'You really think so…?' he asked, his voice sounding pathetically hopeful, even to his own ears.

'Of course it is. Normally women deal with it, rather than man, but well. Now you are playing for both, so it's normal to feel it a little heavier. Don't worry about it. I'll pass you over to sensei now, he's got a patient arriving in fifteen minutes, so I won't hold you any longer. Kisses to Naru!'

'Thank you, Ayame-san. It was nice talking to you.'

There was one of those horrific in-wait telephone theme - which for some reason telephone companies didn't think of changing until someone went mad from listening to them and axed down someone - but thankfully it lasted less than five seconds. The well known voice greeted him, and Minato felt even worse by the immediate sense of relief he felt just from hearing it, even with three days of distance by car between them.

'Minato-kun?'

'Hello, Sarutobi-sensei.' he said, his throat and lungs finally relaxing enough to allow him to take a deep breath. He rubbed Naruto's back lightly. 'How are you feeling?'

It took about three minutes to get over the basic pleasantries, and very likely because the man had caught on the slight edge on his voice and wanted to get to it sooner than later.

'Now, care to tell me what's going on, Minato-kun?'

'I… I think I need to start going to therapy again.' Minato said, feeling guilt starting to crawl up his throat again, tight little claws scraping the delicate inner tissues. 'I- I really think I need it.'

There was a pause on the other side of the line, and Minato could have started to scratch the paint of the walls in despair.

'I'm so sorry, I know I said I needed a pause, but I'm back to taking two pills a day and it's not working and I'm just-'

'Minato, calm down.' said the old, soothing voice, and Minato did. The guilt stayed. 'Minato-kun. I know the both of us agreed that you would stop being in therapy for a few months as test trial, but we never said it was a temporal thing. What I wanted to do is help you, and that is what you should want to do for yourself. If you think you need to start therapy again, you should do it. Frankly, I'm relieved that you are telling me this yourself. It shows that you are capable of knowing your limits and when not to cross them. I'm very proud of yourself, Minato-kun.'

The blond didn't answer. He just tightened his lips until he was sure he wouldn't start crying.

'You moved to another country completely on your own, started several news jobs-'

'I'm not doing anything-'

'You are teaching kids what you love, and I know you are a perfectly capable teacher. I've been to the forums of the university you are working in. You seem to be one of the most popular teachers they have.'

Forums? Sarutobi sensei had been to forums of his college…? There were forums of his college…? Sarutobi-sensei knew how to read Wind country dialect?

'You are trying to do something out of your life. When you came to my office two years ago, I would have never expected something like that. You are responsible for your son, which is what you wanted, but you are also taking responsibility for yourself, which I'm glad you learned to do.'

He didn't know what he could answer to that. It was true, at least he was *trying* to make it true, so why did he fail so bad? How he could he ruin things so easily?

'But I'm not doing it right.' he complained, one hand going to his own hair and tugging on the longish strands less than gently. His wrist pressed the glasses cruelly on his skin, but he didn't move it away. 'I need pills and I need more therapy, and I thought I really was doing better-'

'Minato-kun, there is no right and wrong here. You are simply doing what you need to do to feel all right. You aren't drinking drugs for a hype, you are taking prescribed medicine because you need it. If that helps you, there's nothing bad with it. If you need guidance to reach certain decisions, and you want that help, and there is people who can give it to you, then there is nothing better than grabbing it. All you need to care about is yourself. Remember you aren't taking the suppressors anymore, so we both knew there might be a drawback.'

'I know, but I lasted so long this time, why did it stop working?'

'Exactly.'

'Huh?'

'You did well for almost half a year, even without therapy, did you not?'

'I… yes.' he answered doubtfully. '…yes, I think so.'

'And just now you are feeling so bad you need to call me?'

Minato didn't know what the old man was going at, so he told him so. 'What I mean is that this didn't happen just because. Did something happen to cause you this much distress?' There was a small pause 'Did she find your address?'

'No! No… I took it off the yellow pages. And my telephone… I… no one but Jiraiya-sensei, Ibiki-san and you have it. I never give it to anyone…'

'That's good.' The older man said, and Minato heard a familiar noise he had problem identifying initially, before realizing it was the sound of the man litting his pipe. Despite himself, he smiled a little at the memory of the aromatic tobacco. 'What happened, then?'

Minato debated telling the man about it- he wasn't paying him anymore for his services, after all, and he really shouldn't have called him in the first place… But in the end he sounded so nice, so much like he cared – and God, he really needed someone to care - that he told him everything. From the day Naruto had to be withdrawn from kinder with a bloody nose that had sent him all but galloping to the hospital to find it was nothing to what had happened roughly an hour ago.

'I see.' The older man finally said. 'In that case… maybe you should call child services yourself, Minato-kun. What you describe does sound like abuse.'

'But he's a good father!' at least, he thought he was… wasn't he?

'He might think he is doing the right thing, but that doesn't make him a good father.' The man said calmly. 'Those kids are too small to be left on their own. If what you told me is right, the youngest one could have snapped his neck as easily as he got that wound.'

Minato decided he was glad he was lying down in the couch. Just thinking about something like that made him feel dizzy.

'I… I wouldn't really trust a stranger with my kids, either.' he mumbled after a moment, finally letting go of his hair. 'It's not his fault.'

'I'm sure it isn't. I'm sure he would do better if he could, but the matter is that he is doing more damage to those kids than any good. Companies nowadays have services where you can leave your kids while the parents work, why doesn't he take the kids there? Or ask his family to help him?'

'I don't know. I… I don't know the situation. I know he works very hard, but anything else…'

'Anything else is not your responsibility, Minato-kun.' the man said in the same soothing tone. 'If you want to help those kids, I do think you should, but don't go beyond yourself. As you said, you don't know the situation, so don't be so quick to defend that man.'

'I wouldn't leave my son with a stranger, either…' he repeated, unable to help himself.

'That's not the point here. If he really starts work so early in the morning, there is no way he can be legally working over twelve hours. If he is, he would be gaining double for hour, and if you tell me is true, he should have a good pile stocked up.'

Minato made some vague agreement, but the truth was that he had wondered himself. The situation was just too strange.

'As I said, if you want to help, do your best, I trust your judgment, but don't get involved to the point of getting hurt. Now, and more important, about your therapy…' the man took a deep breath, nearly deafening the older blond in the process. 'After what you described me, it's no wonder you are back to two pills a day. I don't think we should go back to your old prescription, though, I want you to give it some time. You have been under much stress, but that's expected with such a situation.'

Minato didn't know how to feel about such words, but he nodded nonetheless even though the man couldn't see it.

'Let's try this… I'm going to be contacting some colleagues over at Wind country and mail you their data. You can have some interviews and pick the one you feel the most comfortable with. If after a month with you being back in therapy you still feel you need to up the dosage, you can talk about it with the new sensei. Does that sound good?'

'Yes… thank you so much, sensei.' Minato said. He still had a headache and felt unreasonably guilty and tired, but he did feel better as well. Talking about such things with another person was wonderful, it really helped ease his worries a lot. 'I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble.'

'It's no trouble at all, Minato.' the man said warmly. 'I'm glad to hear you can be well on your own self. It really makes me feel very proud of you, just don't let these hardship stop you. I know you can do it.' And he sounded like he meant it to. The older blond smiled and hugged Naruto closer.

'Thank you, sensei.'

'Don't mention it. Let me know how you are doing, and please call me back if you need to talk about anything. Don't worry, things will solve themselves out, you'll see.'

Minato didn't feel that was true, but it was still nice to hear it. He didn't know what he would do tomorrow, but the old man was right… he would do as much as he could, and to the best of his capabilities. They weren't much, but he'd still try.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Stormy, stormy day. That was the first thing Gaara thought about, when he opened his green eyes and looked at the sky. Stormy, grey day. Cold one too. Teddy and him would once again get daddy's coat and be curled in a nice ball between Temari and Kankuro on the back of the car. Maybe it could be nice. But could it really? Somehow, he doubted that. Somehow, he knew that something was not right.

Yesterday, when they were going back home, he kept on talking and talking and talking just to deafen the strange heavy silence in the air as his siblings didn't even say a word. He just kept going about everything and nothing, until he started talking about mommy. Then daddy turned to him and looked at him with this strange, scary glare and took the plush from him, just to close it in the car's shelf. He only started to say one thing. That was 'no'. Or rather a 'n-'. The deadly words that followed were more scary than anything.

'If you say one more word or cry for mommy, I would stop the car and leave you right here.' he said and turned to them 'Leave you all and n e v e r. C o m e. B a c k.' After those words all that could be heard was engine and deadly, deafening silence. That was all.

After that, everything went very quick. The car was parked, all of them were led to the house where without a word they were pushed into the bathroom to wash themselves and dress into pajamas – all happened very quick. But also it was scary, very scary – was it really possible that daddy would leave them alone and never come back?

Temari didn't think so. Really. Well, maybe…

Kankuro was sure he wouldn't. And if he would, he would come back. For sure. Sure.

Gaara didn't know. He just hoped that if he kept himself really close and really tight, daddy would never make him let him go or would get tired and let him stay. But then, it was scary.

He didn't scream at them. Didn't push them to bed or called them out to think about what they did. Gaara was not even sure what they did so he would be happier if he actually heard what he was punished for. But he didn't know. Daddy just didn't say anything. Only looked somewhere from that sofa. Somewhere far away. With empty, very empty eyes… Temari remembered that gaze. Such hollowness happened once – when mommy died. Those were really dark days. For now she just hoped that because of what they did nobody would die again.

She looked at her brothers. Just to be sure, she helped each one of them to get dressed in pajamas. Just to be sure. Kankuro didn't even protest when she saw him naked. Somehow, that all didn't seem important now. They all strolled out from the bathroom, not knowing what to do. They were ready to go to sleep but didn't feel sleepy. Also, daddy didn't say goodnight. After a moment of hesitation, they went to one of the rooms and sat down on Kankuro's bed, hugging to each other. The air… was still scary. Was daddy thinking about how to get rid of them? He couldn't, right? He couldn't… Surprisingly, the first one to cry this time, was Temari.

It was not a loud cry. Just a silent sob, that her brothers saw and said nothing about, just let her wipe her face off and cuddled up to her once more, muttering something about her not being sad. But she couldn't not be sad. It was her fault. Her fault for everything. She shouldn't have used the bus. If she only stayed in school!... She was about to wipe the third tear coming out when Daichi entered the room.

'What are you d-' he started, but that was all he said. He looked at the kids as they instantly cowered, like if he was about to eat them or beat them. It was half-right as he was searching for them to ask them to come to kitchen to have a serious talk with them, which he really didn't feel like doing. The whole situation just pushed him down to the floor and left him switched out after his rage stopped boiling. Once he realized how enclosed he was and how trapped he was, his mind had taken another course, the course of half-panic, the one that usually told him to grab his kids and flee until he would trip on the innocently lying on the ground five dollar bill and get back to his right mind (which he once did, only it was easier to run with Temari and Kankuro when they were younger and lighter in full summer; somehow, this dollar saved Karura's life just right then, but that didn't matter, those were old and closed times). Now he just couldn't think rationally. Just thinking round and round and round…

There's no money. No money for food. No money for bills. No money for car. No money for nanny. No money for kids. With no nanny the kids would be alone. Temari was no problem, she had the place in school's library and club-room, but Kankuro and Gaara were different. As for now, nobody really cared for the lonesome boy sitting in the hallways as this school was particularly cold, but Sasori-sensei once or twice looked at him with concern during the PTAs he managed to get into. Gaara was the worst. It was only the matter of time until someone would call the child services. And then, they would be screwed. All of them.

They would sit on his back for starving them, beating, abusing and who knows what else, not caring for the fact he was abused at work and it was chain of events that was not leading them anywhere. He was abused – if he reported, he was fired – if he was abused he had no money and if he had no money kids were starved which meant they were abused. And if he worked for food for them, they were also abused. Abuse, abuse, abuse. But if he left them at the stranger's house that was acting so strangely, what it was if not abuse then?

Sometimes he wondered if gods wanted to punish him with having children on this world. He didn't regret having them. He just regretted they couldn't be born into a family that could provide them warmth and food. He was not a worthy father.

He would not see kids then. Never. Yashamaru… Yashamaru would win the trail against him. Yashamaru would take the kids. Yashamaru would never let him see them again. He would be left alone. And he would die. Maybe it was all that really left for him. He struggled for so long to live his life. He lived for his family, he lived for Karura, he lived for kids. One after one, he lost them all. And now, everything pointed out that he was about to lose the kids. And once he would live for himself, he would lose his mind.

'The day I was born, devil's must've had a mad party.' he muttered more to himself than to anyone else, and just left the circle. Nowhere. He was going nowhere. He was too tired to punish them all, too tired to scream, too tired to keep up rules. Too tired of everything.

So he just came to the bed and hugged the three to himself, despite of them cowering from him and held them until they all melted against him. He could not give them anything by that. Hugs didn't provide food nor safety, hugs didn't pay for bills and didn't teach about how to flee from a stranger that wanted to kidnap you. Hugs were just a piece of heart that made it worth for one moment at a time. But then, only those moments counted.

He kissed the forehead of wailing girl who begged him for forgiveness, babbling about that she wouldn't do it again, while Kankuro just kept being silent. Gaara seemed to be torn between the behavior of both, so he just kept tweeting quietly with tears that didn't really come, trying to not to be too loud. He stroked his head lightly, giving a kiss to Kankuro also. 'I know… I know.' He muttered tiredly, looking at them 'Just… don't do that, okay? I wouldn't be able to live without you.'

At that, Kankuro's heartbeat has calmed down. It was okay. Dad would never leave them alone. Never. Temari nodded to those words. She felt safe at them. And really, really sorry. She knew she wouldn't do that again. Never, ever, ever. The forgiveness hurt more than the cold stare he was giving her before. Gaara just still didn't know. But hug was nice. Since the teddy was still in the car… teddy… teddy!

'Let's sleep together, tonight, all right?...' said Daichi tiredly, looking at the faces of his kids, wanting to feel them close, feeling that there was no way he would be able to hold onto them long. But then Gaara sprung up, looking at him like a scared deer and muttered one word: 'Teddy.'

And he knew there was no way he would be able to sleep tonight if he didn't bring the plush out of car to the kid. So he came off, despite the kids still wanting to hold onto him, dressed up his shoes in accompaniment of Gaara who stepped around him nervously, like if he was about to go on hysterics and – despite everything he knew, he locked the door and left the kids alone again. The car was not standing far away. This would not take long. But just to be sure, he skipped two steps at a time. Luckily, the plush was still inside his car. Not that anybody would be interested in stealing it. Unless it would be filled with drugs-

And speaking of which, what the heck was inside it? He didn't remember it being so… crunchy before. Now that he thought of it, when he first closed it in the shelf it also was having this strange feeling. Without a second though he opened the zipper to find…

…drugs. Or no, not really. But those were empty sachets for pills. And from what he seen they were for… cough? What were empty sachets for coughing pills doing in Gaara's teddy?

Were his kids sick? No, he didn't see them being sick. Or drugged for that matter. There would be no way he wouldn't notice them being strange after taking so many pills. Even if they all would eat the fair share of it. After a moment, he decided that his brain had enough of thinking for today. It was the best to actually just stop circling around and go and ask the one who could knew it all. Which meant the owner of the teddy. When Gaara saw him holding the empty sachet, he pouted.

'You looked inside.' he more stated than asked, taking the plush into his hands, then his pupils started filling with fear. Daichi didn't wait for him to flee from the spot. He crouched down, still showing it to him and held onto the small arm. He had to know.

'Gaara.' he said in a patient tone he didn't have for years 'What is this?'

The redhead shrugged.

'Things pills are held into.' Daichi nodded, swallowing lightly.

'Did you eat them?' Gaara shook his head

'Kankuro? Temari? Naruto? Naruto's dad?'

Here, the redhead hesitated, but also shook his head. Daichi caught the moment.

'Did Mr. Uzumaki take those pills?' he asked again. Gaara again protested 'Then what is this?'

Gaara looked at him with unhappy face. Daichi felt his patience slowly getting away. Along with his strength. But he waited. Gaara hugged the plush closer.

'Naruto told me not to say.' he said quietly. Daichi looked at the kid with a frown.

'Why?'

'It's a secret.' Which in child's language could mean anything 'He told me to not tell anyone and get rid of those when nobody would look and-'

'Why. Why did he gave you those.' said Daichi, gripping a little tighter his son, making the nervousness in kid grow 'Why did Naruto give you empty sachets?'

'Because he threw them away!' Gaara squeaked helplessly 'So his dad wouldn't get them! I don't know why!'

He looked at Gaara again, seeing that he was about to get close to tears again and let go of him. Gaara immediately hugged himself to the teddy. That was all he needed to know.

'It's okay, Gaara' he muttered, taking the kid from the floor and hugging him to himself. They all went through hard times lately. Or from some time. He didn't know 'But next time something like that would happen, tell me about it, okay? And never eat such if anyone gives you those. Never, understood?'

'Even if Naruto tells me to not do it?'

'Even then.' The redhead nodded, cuddling to him in silence. It was easy to convince him when it came to trusting him. One day it would probably save his life. Maybe. Better safe than sorry.

He came to the trash bin to throw the sachets away and switched off the lights. The other kids were waiting for him on the bed, where he left them. Good. Just enough to warm the bed. Which was a little small for his legs. But that didn't matter. Didn't matter at all. The night was peaceful after that. Then Gaara opened his eyes. And even if it was nice, the morning was stormy. And somehow, he felt something was not right. They all woke up just right and woke up at the same time as daddy was there to wake them up at once and make them get up at the same time. There was no food and the water was taking awhile to get hot, but that was not anything different. Gaara didn't know what was wrong. But it didn't take long after that.

'Gaara, today after the school, wait for me. I will be the one taking you home.' he heard, when daddy was clutching the buttons of his nice, olivine sweater. Temari once said that it belonged to her, but now it suited Gaara more. So she was glad it belonged to him. Gaara was glad too. It was a sweater he didn't see in the shops at all. So it was probably one of those daddy did by himself when nobody was looking. Because Santa Claus couldn't knit. And it didn't matter that he never saw knitting needles in his home. Daddy could do everything if he wanted. He was awesome like that .

'Does this mean we won't get to Naruto's today?' he asked, hugging teddy to himself. The plush also had the sweater of different color. Daichi nodded to that and moved to help Kankuro get his polka-squared sweater get through his head .

'Yes, no one of you. Not alone, not if he came to you. Understood?' The last word was put into the much more pressure as the man messed up the hair of the brunet and moved to Temari to help her with hair. All kids nodded, looking quietly at the floor. 'I want the maps at the table in two minutes. All of them.'

Kankuro looked at his father for a moment, then ran away to get them. Gaara felt disappointed. Not go with him?... But he wanted to play with Naruto today!... And eat that funny red jam that tasted like spices…

'Tomorrow then?' he asked, just to be sure. Adults sometimes needed some time to take care of matters he was never really informed about. It has something to do with Important Things. But daddy once again shook his head.

'No, not tomorrow too. And the day after tomorrow.' he added. Gaara looked at him with frown.

'And the day after after-' he started, but the saffron haired man looked back at him with a harsh glare. Gaara stopped, not understanding.

'Not even then. Or the week after. Or a month. Year. Never.' He said with a pressure that made Temari look even more at her feet. Gaara didn't understand.

'But how will I play with Naruto on playstation then?...' he asked, not understanding how daddy wanted him to do that. It seemed too difficult to do that from far away. But maybe there was a solution?...

'You won't.' daddy answered simply and got up to get their bags. Gaara looked after him.

'…and drink milk? Mommy said it's important to drink milk!...'

'You won't.' said daddy again, giving him his small bag in which he held crayons and notebook. Gaara felt more and more confusion and hopelessness coming to him.

'But I want to!...' he said finally looking at his father with pleading eyes. Daichi shot him an angry glare. Gaara covered.

'Want to? What is this tone supposed to be?' he asked with annoyance 'Be quiet. You're not going to play with Naruto from now on, understood? And if you get close to his dad I would call the police and make them go to jail. Do you want that? Do you?' The redhead shook his head in protest, feeling that if anything, he didn't want to cause such a thing to happen to Naruto and his dad at all. Jail was a scary, scary place!... 'Then do as I say.'

After that, when Kankuro left the map on the table where Daichi immediately torn it and threw away, they all went out of the house. A little earlier than ever. But now Gaara knew why it was a bad day. He was not to play with Naruto at all. He didn't want to. But he couldn't. He didn't know why. He didn't understand. But he couldn't. Somehow, unhappiness didn't leave him at all. Temari and Kankuro seemed to know exactly what he meant.

They were fifteen minutes earlier. Not for his work, as he was already late for a few minutes, but for once he finally managed to get kids to be on time to their classes. All of his three. He seemed to be only one to be happy about it. But he couldn't blame them for that. Not that he had time to think about it for long.

'Ah, Mr. Sarutobi.' He said, getting out of the car. Gaara looked up at one of his senseis with painful stare. He did like him. But not his cigarettes. And not right now, where he was forbidden to play with Naruto. But his sensei didn't seem to look at him much as he was handled to him 'I'm glad to see you.'

'Yes?' said the man, giving Sabaku the hand for a loose handshake and changing the cigarette in his mouth 'It's a pleasure, your presence is not viewed here very often also…' Daichi smiled tightly, dismissing the hidden needle in the words.

'I have a problem to discuss with you.' he said, looking at the cigarette 'Or rather, a request – I don't want Mr. Uzumaki to take Gaara with him after classes anymore.'

The bearded man smiled.

'Oh?' he said, looking at the kid for a moment. Gaara looked at him with unhappy face 'Does that mean that from now on you will be the one to take care of Gaara at more normal hours?'

Suddenly, the unexpected silence emerged. Asuma frowned, his smile fading a little. Huh?...

'As I said, I don't want the man to get close to my kid.' said Daichi again, his smile tightening more, like if he was hiding bare fangs under the skin and tried his best to not uncover at him with a snarl 'Not a meter close. If I heard he even touched my kid, things will get ugly. Am I clear?'

The mouth of the teacher closed into a tight line. There was no sense into further asking.

'Clear. Perfectly clear.' he said, patting Gaara on the shoulder again, looking at the floor as the man turned on his heels and drove away. He knew it could be hard for a man to have a kid at Gaara's age to handle this alone as he seemed to work so much. He had a kid himself and knew it was not easy even for him. But that man had enough chances and once the snow would fall, looking through fingers at that would be just too much. Too much. He looked at the kid. Gaara looked back, with the same grim face.

'So, let's go inside? It's getting cold around here…' he said, steering him to the kindergarten. The redhead nodded, stepping along him, but not saying a word.

But who knew, maybe this day the man would change his schedule. Kurenai always said he laid too much hope on people. But that was just the way he was. And why was he declining the kid such a good care as Mr. Uzumaki seemed to be? He didn't know. But with good luck the rule would be taken off. As for now, he could do nothing, but respect the rule.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato woke up with a start at the sound of thunder, only to find out that he had managed to sleep past the alarm. It wasn't really strange, considering how little he had slept in the past three days and that he had only managed to fall asleep sometime around four in the morning, but still… Noises usually woke him up easily.

Not that it was too late, barely 8:10 A.M. according to the TV, but he didn't remember turning it off at all, and it was all the way across the room, so he should have at least obtained some queasy-coherency by the time he reached the alarm. He looked at the window, staring at the grey sky and frowning at how hard it seemed to be raining, but didn't waste much time at that. If they hurried and he just gave Naruto a snack on the way they would make it only half an hour late. He had already changed his pants and reaching for a new shirt, when he distractedly glanced at his alarm, and realized that there were no lights showing on it.

He stared at the device for a moment, wondering if it was possible that a stray lightning bolt had fallen somewhere, casually causing just the alarm to short-circuit… And he was pretty sure it was possible. In one case in like, ninety eight. Being such, he picked it up, examined it one moment, and when he followed the cable going to the plug, realized it had been removed from it. The question was when.

When he'd finished the phone talk, it had been eleven something and Naruto had fallen asleep, and he'd simply put him to bed after changing him into his pajamas. Then he'd started procrastinating as one couldn't really call working to doing the dishes and then starting to look up different ways to spell names so he could change a minor character's name. That had eaten the next five hours, and he couldn't remember if by the time he had managed to drag himself to bed hoping to knock out, he'd even checked the lights on the alarm. He didn't think he had.

Which meant that at some point during the night, Naruto had gotten up and unplugged it, and as much as he didn't like the idea of his son playing with electricity outlets, he liked even less the reasons why he would have done such a thing.

'Naruto!'

No answer, not that it meant much. Waking up Naruto had always been a feat all on itself. He finished changing into a random shirt he fished from his drawers in the dark and walked towards the little blond's room, opening the half-turned door and staring at the little mountain of covers where his son was supposed to be. Or he hoped he was, at least, he suddenly wondered if Naruto might have managed to run away or something, even though he always left the keys too far up for Naruto to get them- but Naruto was there. Pretending to be asleep and failing in the way that only preschool little kids really manage to.

'Naru? Why did you do that for?' he sat next to the little boy, one hand reaching to pat the impossibly messy hair. There was no answer, other than the tightly squeezed shut eyes to close even further. 'Naruto.'

'I 'dn w'nn t' go t' sch'l.' was the low, stretched mumble that he managed to make out only after he managed to put all the missing vowels in place.

'Why not…?' This time there really was no answer, so he stroked the small and impossibly warm back.

'…can I stay home today?'

Minato started to say no, that delaying the inevitable wouldn't help at all, but then stopped. He just remained stroking his boy's back, marveling at the radiating heat that only small kids managed to gather while sleeping.

'Okay.' he heard himself say quietly. 'But only for today.'

Naruto was immediately up and throwing his arms around his neck, nodding fiercely, and he caught him and picked him up, walking back to his room.

'Do you want to watch a movie…?'

Nodding, Naruto moved to the recently vacated spot in his father's bed and waited for him to get back before cuddling back to his side. Not twenty minutes into it, he was dead asleep. He wondered if he was the only one who was having problems sleeping.


	12. 12: Tape

The day passed by. Slowly. Stormy. Rainy. Scary. Lee said it was probably flooding everyone and made kids laugh. Lee said he would not allow that. Lee said he would protect Sakura. People laughed again. Gaara looked at his teddy and moved far away from the circle of joking kids. He would protect his teddy. He didn't find anything funny with it. But he didn't want other kids to find out. There was no Naruto. At first, because he was not there. Then, because he was late. And then…

…then Gaara didn't know why Naruto wasn't there. He tried asking teachers.

'You'd better be worried about your father not being here when the time comes.' said the red lipped woman and stood up to not look at Gaara anymore. She didn't like him. Gaara walked away. The feeling was mutual.

He tried asking kids.

'I dunno.' said Shikamaru, who knew everything.

'…aybe because… cause… cause…' tried saying Hinata, but he didn't understand, so he left after a few seconds.

'He probably ate too much and is sick.' shouted Choji who had never been absent for any other reason.

Nobody knew. He sat in the corner and asked gods. But they didn't answer. And mommy? Mommy didn't know too. So… he probably did it. He probably moved out in secret, like he said he would if Gaara would tell anyone. Somehow he knew he told. And he moved. Forever. He was about to start crying, when a shadow came over him. He looked up. The pale hand offered him yellow crayon.

'I dun like it.' said the owner of the crayon, looking at him with black coaled eyes. Gaara looked at the crayon. It was very bright.

'I dun like it.' Repeated the boy, holding it up a little lower 'But maybe you would like some. I have some paper and other crayons… but blue ones are mine.' Gaara didn't take it. He had his own crayons today.

'What would you want to draw?' he said instead, getting up. The boy shrugged lightly with a faint blush.

'A present. For a brother.' he said, looking like if it was embarrassing thing. Gaara didn't think It was bad. He had brother too. 'I want to give him something special.' With that, he raised the paper, that made girls on other room squeal and point at him, but he ignored it. Gaara looked at it, upside down.

A picture of something humanly humanish. It had red eyes and a nice blue sweater with Uchiha's crest, the sign of special police's force in the town. He liked it.

'Why would you want to give it to him?' he said, looking at the boy. Once again, the embarrassed expression was shown up at his face.

'Because I don't want him to be mad at me. And come back home to show me how to write essays. Father doesn't know how to do that.' Gaara nodded. He didn't really know what was that for, but the words 'come back' made much sense to him. So without a word, he sat down on the other side of the table and took out his crayons. They weren't that shiny like the one that other boy ('The name's Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke.') but it didn't matter. They were his. Kinda his.

After a few moments he was drawing with Sasuke's crayons and the boy used up his. It didn't really matter. If he drew a picture… if he only drew a nice picture… Two pictures… for brother too… why not to give Kankuro something like Sasuke wanted to give something for ('Big bro's name is Itachi'.) too?... And Temari… yes… a nice shiny picture for Temari… because he also loved her…

…and of course for daddy… maybe daddy would be happy enough to say he changed his mind… and let him check on Naruto if he would come back for picture…

…and mommy… mommy… mommy… to come back… a big, shiny picture for her to come back… he was tired of waiting… so two… two pictures for mommy… because she needed them the most…

…and another one for-

'Sasuke! Sasuke? Sasuke, time to go home!' was shouted from the doors. Gaara stopped drawing. The black crayon made an ugly scratch where he wanted to start drawing a face. That drawing was destroyed already. He looked around. It was already darker than in the morning. And there was only him and Sasuke left.

'I have to go home.' said the other boy and packed up his things 'Big bro came for me. See ya.' And with that, he skipped off. Gaara looked after him, waving at him with a hand that looked like if it was dipped in a paint of all colors of the rainbow and sucked on his lips. Could it be possible for Naruto to come for him now too?... That wasn't impossible… if Itachi came for Sasuke…

He packed up his things and waited. And waited. And waited. Then sensei Asuma took him outside and held an umbrella above his head, lending him his own coat. He said many different things, none of the important. Cold weather, busy life, new friend, new school, his school, his life. Gaara didn't listen. And Naruto didn't come. Instead, there was a screech of wheels upon the street at the moment where the rain was becoming heavier and a quick known tapping against the puddles of water and the street. The scent of cigarettes he hadn't seen for long, the rustle of material he knew too well, the edgy, but warm voice he heard every night when he went to sleep…

…and he was in the car, a little wet, between dry Temari and completely soaked Kankuro. Driving away. Naruto didn't come. Ever. And the rain fell down from his eyes too. This day, after scary shouting, mindless bugging and nice hugging, the rain stopped only at night. It came once he closed his eyes, hugged to the big warm chest of the man who didn't know how to make it stop. Not for the first time in his life. But rare time definitely. It was scary. It was worrisome. It was bad.

This night Sabaku no Daichi didn't sleep in his own bed or sofa. This night Daichi spent sitting on the floor, with back to the radiator with lulled up kid in his arms. This night, the saffron haired man stared back with hollow gaze at the Boogey Man and didn't react to his laughter, seeing the dancing of the monsters and merciful Morpheus standing upon him with his portion of sleeping sand in his hands. And ignoring it all. This night Sabaku no Daichi didn't go to sleep. And when the first rays of red sunshine fell on his face, he stared back at it, and wondered. He wondered how it was possible that he was the only one who was having problems sleeping. Or maybe not?...

#+#+#+#+#+#

Naruto was uncharacteristically mellow for all of its duration and hardly left him alone at all. The first part was to be expected, and while Naruto was known for having sudden attacks of neediness, a whole day of it was exceptionally rare. He was worried about what might be going on the little blond's mind, but didn't quite dare to start digging in yet. Maybe tomorrow, if things didn't look up.

All in all, Minato had expected similar treatment than the previous day, so he had prepared his cell phone with the alarm feature besides plugging the normal alarm back in place, but save from some pleading looks during breakfast, there wasn't any further discussions about skipping classes. The walk to school was uncharacteristically silent, something he was even more aware than he would have been considering he had woken up around six in the morning and hadn't really managed to fall back asleep after it, so he was pretty awake for the time. And feeling rather anxious. For good reasons, apparently, because after ruffling his son's head and having him scamper off inside, the teacher asked him if he could have a word with it.

'Good morning, Mr. Uzumaki... ' said Asuma, messing up his never really combed well hair and looking at him with a little tired glare. It was yet another day that started very early, and with such a sleepy weather it was hard to stay put without additional cup of coffee 'Do you have a moment? I would like you to ask you a question if you don't mind…'

Minato looked after his son, making sure he got inside the classroom safely, and more importantly, wouldn't be eavesdropping. After that, he nodded, reaching into his pockets to fish out the pack of cigarettes, sighing at the fact there were only five left. He'd have to buy a new packet before picking Naruto up.

'Yes, of course.' he started looking around, trying to figure out which pocket he'd left the lighter.

Asuma sighed, then fished out his lighter to put it near the blond's mouth before he had a chance to find his own. With such a light head he had, it seemed that it would take forever for him to find it out.

'I wanted to only make sure I'm not misinterpreting some things I've been told lately.' he said, watching Minato smoke his cigarette 'Is that true you're not going to take the little Sabaku after working hours with you?'

'Thank you.' the blond murmured before taking a drag, not really feeling soothed by the cigarette, but still feeling better than if his mouth had been empty. 'Yes, it's true.'

'I see.' The man clicked off his lighter and hid it in his pants' pocket looking for a moment at the kids in the other room. It was already time to say all parents who wanted to leave kids here already did that, but the little redhead was still missing. Nothing new; knowing his father, he could be here in half or three hours, the more varied the sequence, the better. He looked back at the blond.

'Such a shame, such a big shame…' he said finally, scratching the back of his head again and hiding his palms in his pockets 'The kid really had good luck for having such a good care lately and I could finally go home when I was supposed to leave… any ideas when this will change back to the old ways?'

'I'm so sorry.' the blond immediately said, even though it wasn't really his fault. He felt even more stupid by that outburst than he already had been. '…I don't know.'

He took a nervous drag, not really knowing what to say. Should he try to explain the situation? But wouldn't that be even worse? he remained silent. Asuma rose his head, looking at the blond with a little surprise. He hadn't expected to be apologized to and so suddenly at that. After a light clearing his throat, he looked sideways, wondering. He didn't know?... Strange… Weren't adults supposed to say such vital things when they decided to call such things off? And even if it was sudden it was usually known if that thing was ended forever or lied off or…

'It's not really my thing to do, but…' he said, looking back to the blond '…did something bad happen between you and Mr. Sabaku? He didn't seem to be very happy when he signaled me his news.' _More like a tiger ready to claw at my throat for even taking an interest in this matter _he thought, but he was not saying that out loud.

'Yes.' Minato replied. because if he said anything, anything else, he knew he'd screw it up. He could lie for the man, but he was scared of doing so. If he lied, Sabaku might get mad at him for trying to help again. And the only one who'd suffer would be their children. Asuma looked at him for a moment, trying to read things off his face and waiting for the blond to continue. But as no other words came, he locked his eyes on the floor. There was no sense in pushing it. It was not his matter after all.

'I guess then it's not my thing to interfere.' he said, turning on his heel to face the small kitchen for personnel 'But please, whatever it is, take care of it quickly, because once it would start snowing my patience would stop being so flexible. And it would freeze when I would try to not look at the phone. Okay?'

He turned his head to the blond to see if he got what he meant. But he was sure he didn't have to be more clear about child's services. The thing was hanging on the air rather heavily.

'But if that's not possible for you then let me know, I would do it sooner. The kid is who suffers here the most after all.'

The blond winced as if he'd suddenly bitten on a lemon, but didn't make any comment, one way or another. He wanted to cry how it wasn't his fault or his responsibility, but it would have sounded both wrong and untrue, because he didn't believe either of the affirmations. If he hadn't taken the maps, nothing like this would have happened. And if he had the means to stop the situation, it was also his responsibility, as he had assumed it by taking care of the kid. So how… how could he do anything to fix this situation?

The obvious and immediate answer was to call the man and let him know what the teacher had just said. Try to reason with him, only he didn't think he could do that. He didn't think he'd be able to have a normal conversation with the man through the phone, especially if he started threatening him like last time. And in person… either way would lead to the man angry at him. And as angry as he had been last time, he didn't want to end up down into a fight. He hated fighting. He didn't even dare to send a text message.

Tomorrow... maybe tomorrow...

Maybe he wouldn't have to do anything at all and the man would see what he was doing to his kids. Minato didn't care if he wanted him to take care of it or not, as long as someone made sure those kids had the proper attention they obviously needed. That's what he hoped, at least, as he tossed the finished butt of the cigarette to the trash bin, hands going to his pockets as he made the way back to their house.

After one hour and fifteen minutes, the old dusty car has stopped near the kindergarten with the old unmistakable screech. This time more crazy than previously.

'You hear me, Gaara, go to the door and say to sensei Sarutobi you're in, now go! Go! Gods, I'm so screwe-' The last word was cut off by a loud closing of the door and just as mad screeching when the car has moved out of the parking spot in a speed that was probably not allowed. The redhead looked after him for a moment, then slowly rose his plush and waved with its paw quietly. Asuma looked at it not without a feeling of sadness. Gods forbid he would ever become such a man for his own child. Gods forbid.

When he opened the door, Gaara was already half-way to it, not seeming to be surprised he noticed him coming in. With a single 'Hello.' and little struggle to help him get out of too big sweater he was having on (and by big he meant big – it was made for a grown up man) he was ready to join the group of children inside. But instead of doing that, he just stood there and looked at Asuma like if he was going to kill off his favorite dog.

'What is it? Why are you not coming inside?' asked Asuma, looking at the redhead. At that, the face of the child had – completely out of sudden – changed into a wince with quivering lip, which was only one step from… 'Oh no, please, don't cry! What's happened? Are you hungry? Want a hug from uncle Asuma? What is it, Gaara?'

The redhead only shook his head at him, unable to speak out loud and turned his face to the floor, gripping his teddy tightly as he tried with all his strength to hold the quivering lip at the moment he was having it. But somehow, the big ball in his chest and throat just grew bigger and bigger…

'Then what is it? Are you hurt? Does your tummy hurt? Or head? Did something bad happen in home?' continued the man, knowing he was starting to go through the dangerous grounds of the family's privacy, but as schooled kindergartener he had rights to do that. But the redhead once again shook his head, letting one of the tears spill from his eye.

''uto.' he said quietly, catching a breath and locking in the same expression again. Asuma looked at him with confusion.

'What was it? Sorry, I didn't hear. What was that you wanted?' The redhead grimaced dangerously, with his eyes glimmering with tears like little lakes and dug his fingers into the plush even deeper.

'Naruto!...' he squeaked out finally in higher tone 'I want Naruto to come back!...'

'Oh? Oh, so… really?' said Asuma in confusion, not really knowing how to react. He cleared his throat quickly then got up from crouching, quickly opening the door to the other room 'Then I have really good news for you, Naruto just came in an hour ago and he is waiting just right ther-' He was not able to end that sentence, as the redhead vanished from the spot he was standing and could be spotted running across the room, already shedding the tears in a low cry he finally didn't manage to hold. Asuma blinked.

Those… those parents…

Oh, for the love of gods. Not like them. Any of them. He could be just an average good and caring dad. Little boredom never killed anyone after all.

Naruto was playing, or at least he was pretending to play convincingly enough to keep people from intruding. What was he playing with? Dough. Normally, he'd have to be watched so he wouldn't try to ingest the colorful mass (and why did they made them in yummy scented smells if they didn't want them to be eaten?), but today, the soft purple mass held no fascination for him. He just rolled it on the carpet, undoubtedly collecting dust and dirt and who knew what else, besides acquiring the shape of the carpet and concentrated on ungluing the little bits that got stuck on it.

It wasn't until he heard the familiar sound that he even looked up, and by then all he could do was barely catch the redhead as the smaller body threw itself at him, knocking him flat on his back. There was a collective gasp as everyone suddenly focused their attention on them, again thinking they would end up in a fierce fight, and the teacher was actually halfway down there to pull them apart when they realized Gaara was crying, not trying to murder Naruto like the last time. Naruto was simply hugging him back just as tightly, saying things that were too low for them to make out over the sounds the redhead made.

'I missed you… so much!...' said Gaara between sobbing, trying to catch his breath, but not quite managing 'Where were… you? I was worried! Narutaaaan!...' With that, he hugged the blond even tighter, his teddy forgotten two steps back on the way.

'I'm sorry!' the little blond replied in a panic, trying to get back into a sitting position and only managing at the fifth try with the way Gaara was spread on top of him. 'I didn't want to leave my daddy alone, he called home and I think he wants to go back or something…' Why would he have called old man Sarutobi, if not?

'Don't cry, I'm here.' he mumbled, hugging the older boy even closer.

The other boy hiccupped, bawling only at the words he heard. Naruto's dad wants to go home?...

'No!...' he yowled, hugging the blond even tighter. 'Don't go back!... I'll miss you so… so terriblyyy!... I made you a picture!... Don't go!...'

Naruto hugged the very loud, crying redhead mostly on him and ignored the worried teachers around, just repeating over and over that he was here now and wouldn't leave him, internally thinking that he'd at least try to. Because he missed his house. It was really pretty with a huge garden and really, really big, especially compared with where they were now. But it was also very lonely. And there would be no Gaara there. And the 811-lady lived there, so it was dangerous. This house was nice enough, and even after all that had happened, his daddy was better than he'd been there. No, he wanted to stay here. Even if it was too hot during day and too cold during night, and winter was unexpectedly cold.

'Don't cry Gaara!' he pleaded.

The redhead nodded, trying to stop the stream of tears, but this, once again seemed to be easier said than done. The painful hard ball in his throat just scrapped his throat every time he tried to hush down and made it hard to breathe, which resulted in another whine. But it was more of a calming cry instead of a painful one. Just what he needed to cry out till it didn't last. Just that.

It was good that Naruto was there. He never imagined he would miss him so much. Maybe because he never imagined how his life would look without Naruto once he came in. It would be too scary if he went away too. Like mommy.

No, only not like mommy!... He clung to the blond in another whine, feeling the sudden fear of losing something more of things dear to him, seeing that not only daddy could leave him and his siblings vanish. Naruto could also be the one to not be present in his life anymore. He didn't want that. He so didn't want that.

But Asuma seemed to think the way he did. The man looked at the kids and at the other helping teacher that was standing near his side and shrugged, seeing that she was as helpless as he. He didn't understand what made such a big tumor to happen, but it probably had something to do with what was happening in both families. He didn't want to bug in, even if it looked quite unhealthy, but when little Hinata started to join in the redhead in nervous whimpers and Shino started seeking for the outside of the kindergarten, disturbed by the noise, he decided it was time to react with some warnings, even if he really didn't like doing that. It was just hard to bear with kids when they were walking sad around him. But it seemed he had no other choice. Gaara was not reacting to pleading and hushing and any logic here. He doubted he even listened to him at all.

'Oh my, that's so terrible...' he said finally, getting up from crouching and turned to the plush that lied not far away from the kids 'Look, Gaara, you cry so much you made teddy scared so badly, I guess it would be good to make him go to sleep in the private shelf in my ro-' He didn't end that sentence, as he bit himself on the tongue to not shout out. The redhead immediately let go of his arm and caught the plush in his hands, looking at him with hostility as he came back to Naruto to circle him in his arms once more. Without looking like if he cried just a river of tears.

'My teddy.' he said darkly, making a pout at the teach, hiding it between him and other kid. 'Mine.' Asuma smiled through tears.

'O-of course it's yours. I'm so glad you are feeling better now…' he said, looking down at his arm. The line of small little wounds presented by white teeth of Gaara left a nicely cut, oozing wound just on the both sides of it. And seriously, he didn't even hear the kid stopping his cry… 'Want to tell me what was it all abou-'

'Mine.' repeated Gaara, licking his bloodied lips and frowning at the man. Asuma sighed.

'Yes, yours. I'm sorry.'

'Gaara!' This time the high pitched cry was from Naruto, who was staring bug-eyed at the redhead. 'That wasn't nice!' Pushing the other away enough to get his arms freed, he used the edge of shirt to clean the blood off the other's lips before he continued licking it, then continued with the redhead's huge, eyes, which were all shiny from the tears.

'Don't do that anymore.'

Gaara just looked at him, letting him wipe his face, which was a nice feeling. Very nice. Reminded him of something, but he couldn't really put a finger on what was it. So he leaned into it, trying to figure out and taking the pleasure from being coddled that way. Then he just looked at the blond like if the circle of people around them didn't exist and asked simply: 'Want to see my pictures?'

Naruto finished what he was doing, ignoring the fact his yellow shirt was now stained red and silvery with snot on the part he'd used to clean the redhead's face and nodded.

'But you should say sorry, first. Or you'll be bad.'

The redhead looked at the blond with a frozen look for a moment, then he turned around with a timid look on his face, not exactly facing the teachers. The floor looked very interesting now. He didn't feel guilty. His teddy was his, it was mommy and he had to protect it. He couldn't understand why people around him didn't understand that it was his, his teddy only, but maybe it was because he was not good enough…

'Sorry.' he muttered under his nose, not really knowing what he was apologizing for, but he knew that if he didn't say sorry, his daddy would be very angry at him. He always was when he didn't say sorry. After a moment of silence he dared to look up a bit, only to see his teacher holding onto his hand and getting up from his knees.

'Hahaha, that's nothing, nothing…' he muttered, but Gaara knew already it was not nothing and lowered his gaze in saddened up face. Why did it always had to go wrong with him… Without a word he turned to Naruto and hugged him like a second plush, hiding his head behind him. Somehow, that felt better than hugging just one thing.

'That's ok now.' the blond said, rather relieved as he wrapped his arms around the redhead and patted him lightly over the bandage. Because biting people wasn't nice. He wasn't surprised by the way Gaara had reacted, considering the little redhead had given him a punch so hard it took his nose several minutes to start bleeding, Gaara was just very protective of it. It was a promise to his mommy, and Naruto understood that was very, very important.

But he'd also hurt Asuma-teach, even though he had been really mean by trying to take teddy away. But now he'd apologized and everything was okay, Gaara wasn't bad anymore, and they wouldn't get punished.

'You really made a drawing just for me?'

The redhead nodded, blushing a little. He was not sure of how Naruto would like it, so he was a little insecure about showing it, but since Sasuke was told by girls to be a good drawer and he just copied him… He let go of the blond to pass through the circle of still interested kids and go for his backpack where he hid his previous things without unpacking it. He didn't have anything else to pack there anyway, just scissors and glue. But scissors were always needed at home and in kindergarten was always much of glue as Chouji always ate a lot of it and Asuma sensei bought more and more of it, hiding it everywhere to Choji to not find it and to kids to have something to play with once he would make a colorful cutting day… but somehow, those days never managed to succeed.

Mostly because Chouji always managed to eat so much glue it would either not last or he would have to be hospitalized and the other teach was not very fond of trying her strength with glue and kids after seeing what the plump boy could do with it. That's why he usually never took his own from home.

After a few minutes, he was back in the crowd (which was smaller again as some kids got bored with waiting) and just sat in front to Naruto, making the pictures, notebook and crayons fall out from his bag Kankuro-style (which daddy never really liked as it made always a lot of mess with wood pieces and many papers of Kankuro, but Gaara secretly admired how easy it was to rummage through everything when it was out and not like Temari, who struggled to find everything inside almost getting lost in the bag on her own). The pictures presented themselves in whole style and grace.

'This one is for you.' said Gaara, taking the big paper with the yellow person with something that looked like a blotch of orange in one four fingered hand and a green poo with eyes near its legs 'That's you, that's foxie and that's froggie I saw yesterday when I was going back home, I didn't know if you liked them but it looked nice so I drew it…'

The blond grinned excitedly, taking the crumpled paper and smoothing it out, examining all of it very seriously. It was obvious that the orange one was Kyuubi, because of the many tentacle-tails it had, even though he wasn't sure the number was right… And…

'A frog? I love froggies!' he squealed, throwing his arms around Gaara's neck and squeezing tightly. And it had rained yesterday, even though it was really cold by froggie standards… 'Thank you, Gaara.' he said, giving the smaller boy a small squeeze. 'I have to draw you something too!'

And he already knew what it would be!

#+#+#+#+#+#

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick… It was silent. So silent it was. Silence, silence, silence, tick, tick, tick… Daichi felt like if his head was about to explode. Not from pain, no. From silence. It seemed that the day he got into his working place was one of those bad, bad days that lady luck has hidden herself in the cupboards in kitchen and stayed there until the boss decided to get a cup of coffee and let her out…

…the problem was there was no coffee. And there probably wouldn't be any until tomorrow. Or day after tomorrow. Seeing the grim, tight faces of his coworkers bended upon their desks and the pale grimaces on two new ones the day after tomorrow too…

One of them was fired because he made an average mistake of average kind in average document with average carelessness. The mistake that any of them could do because such things happened. The other one was fired because he actually reminded the boss that simple truth. So today everyone were bended upon their desks and watched the desks with eyes red from lack of break and hands dark from ink to make sure it was visible they used it and worked. Because nobody knew what could happen in such atmosphere. Next time it could be any of them. Daichi bit on the end of the fountain pen. He made a very bad move by being late today. And he was also very careless about strolling in just in front of his boss just when he was talking with the new blood of the company.

Moment later, they both were fired. A warning.

He looked at the mirror that was held in every office. He also was pale like if he was about to collapse. But how could he not be? He almost felt the breath of the dangerous dragon of poverty, sickness and mercilessness on the back of his neck. Everybody would be terrified.

But gods damn, how was he supposed to work in such atmosphere? The numbers in which he was so sure he almost spotted the little mistake and cornered it danced before his very own eyes in the wild samba and made it impossible for him to track it down. Almost like if the forest suddenly grew out in front of the bunny he was chasing and his prey was out of his view once again. Great. By making a mistake of not finding a mistake he was making an average mistake of average kind in average documents that could happen to any of the-

He closed his eyes, cutting off his train of thoughts. It seemed that the boss was not the only one who was in need of coffee. But sadly, there was nothing that could be done there. Things could only get worse. And just when he regained his trajectory of thinking and calmed his breath enough to be able to get back to work, the silence bubbled up and broke like a fragile handful of foam just right in his face. The phone rang out in the whole floor. His very own phone. In the silent office it almost sounded like an alarm warning everyone about the bomb hidden somewhere in the building. A fire alarm. Daichi looked at it with utter betrayal written on his face in a painful frown.

Why. Why now, when he had no means and enough of problems. Why when he finally broke all contacts that could make it ring? Why always, when it came to him, the alarm and the bomb were always the same thing? With half of a curse and half of a sob he reached out for a receiver, cursing all gods for the atmosphere when picking up meant going against rules and ignoring it would only draw more attention to him, making it only the matter of time until the boss would notice it too. At least in first option he could make it brief so the second wouldn't happen. Which he intended to do. Instead, the words of any excuse he wanted to say, died on his lips before they ever had chance to exist.

It was Temari.

'Please, come quick, Gaara got hurt, he is bleeding and we don't know what to do!' shouted at him, making him pale three times and get up instantly. Temari. Oh gods- 'There's so much blood and he is crying and we can't get out, daddy-!'

'Hold on, Temari, I will be right there!' he said, scooping his jacket and almost tripping on his shoes as he got out from behind a desk. Dear gods, not again!... Screw the work, he could get fired, only if that wouldn't fatal, please, let him be on time, please, please!... 'Just find something to press it against his wound and I'll be right back in…'

'…home?'

His hand stopped just before touching the knob on the doors. That… wasn't Temari. That was… that… that…

'So do you want to say that my lovely niece and both of nephews are sitting alone at home locked out instead of being at school?' once again said the voice in that kind, soft and completely cruel tone he had only dreamed about in worst nightmares 'My, my Daichi, how creative you've become lately…'

Yashamaru. Daichi felt like if the air got totally sucked out of the room and instead, it got filled with blocks of ice, gripping at his throat. What… what… how…

'You… you… ' he mumbled, unable to articulate a proper word. The voice on the other line chuckled.

'Yes, it's me, your beloved brother-in-law, just got back from my working trip, aren't you happy to hear from me?' it rustled in a phone. Daichi breathed in and out, not making a sound as there was a beep in the background on the other side. He felt like if someone had just hit him with something big and hard 'Please, come quick, Gaara got hurt, he is bleeding and we don't know what to do!...' screeched at him once again in his daughter's voice. Holly gods.

'From where… where did you got this?...' he said, leaning on the wall as the legs simply gave out from under him 'That's a big misunderstan-…'

'There's so much blood and he is crying and we can't get out, daddy locked us up and-! There's so much blood and he is crying and we can't go out, daddy locked us up and-! Daddy locked us up and-! Daddy locked us up and! Daddy locked us u- Oh, I just got a lovely greeting from my niece when I got back home… you know, just a fine cheery 'hello' between grocery store offering the prize off on my usual delivery and pizza guy asking if I wouldn't want to order sushi for a change. Normal happy stuff, Daichi…'

'That's not what you think-' started the saffron haired man, but instead he got another package of crying into his ear 'Yashamar-!'

'So much blood and he is crying-! So much blood and he is crying-! So much blood and he is crying-!' chanted nonstop as the tape was rewinded and played again and again, like if the blond was retarded or maybe even found pleasure in replaying the hysterics of little girl. That was too much for him. He had no idea Temari managed to contact him before she actually rang to Minato!...

'Yashamaru, listen-!' he tried again. The tape on the other side of the line was suddenly slammed with such a loud force he felt it in his teeth.

'No, you listen!' said the cruel voice with a hiss, totally void of kindness this time 'I understand everything perfectly well! Once I'm gone trying to make my money for my life working you start on little crusade against your own fears on children my sister bore and my sister gave birth to like some monster! What the hell, have you lost your mind completely?'

'Those are my kids too!' shouted Daichi, unaware of how loud he raised his volume, being glad he had his blinds shut already 'And I didn't-'

'That's you who think that! In my eyes you lost all rights to take care of them already!' hissed at him again, making him wince. 'I swear, you'd better go home and pray to your advocate like to gods you believe in, because from now on I'm not backing down? You hear me? I will not let you hurt Karura's children again!'

Daichi opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but not finding any words to do so. Somehow, in his head formed one big black hole which sucked up every piece of his knowledge to nothing instead of helping him find one the right answer.

'That's not… that's not like that…' he managed to say finally with raspy voice, feeling how his mouth were totally dry and speaking made his throat bleed 'You got it all wrong…'

Something on the other side clicked. Like a button. Or a trigger. Maybe both. Maybe not. Daichi felt his heart stopping. He is going to kill him. Kill him dead for the thing he didn't do!... He is going to orphan three kids that never would know what hit them because their uncle would first shoot then ask questions. Oh for the love of gods, gods, gods… Gods! And when he was about to beg him, Yashamaru laughed. With that warm, kind laugh of his.

'Oh, chill off Daichi, you're breathing like a cornered animal.' he said in that sweet saccharine tone that only he could produce 'I knew it couldn't be you, you're just too pathetic to hurt your kids.' And he laughed again. Daichi looked at the phone, looking at the floor he slid down from the sudden lack of pressure. Somehow, it didn't seem funny to him at all.

'T-then?...' he asked finally, trying to not sound too pressuring, but wanting to search the ground. The chuckling finally ceased into the silence.

'You know what I want, Daichi.' murmured at him with the warmth of a stranger urging you with candy 'You know very well…'

'And if I give it to you, you will destroy the tape?'

'Oh, of course. Wouldn't want the beloved 'daddy' to get electric chair, wouldn't I? It wouldn't look good in the eyes of my niece and nephews.' Daichi held a breath for a moment, counting to three. Did he really have any other choice? If yes, he didn't see them. With a painful grimace, he did just what he was asked for.

'Oh, you're so generous, brother-in-law.' chuckled Yashamaru at him, slowly locking the gun he was holding into safety, though just in the right distance, so Daichi couldn't hear him doing that. The recorder in his hands shone lightly with a tape that was rewinded once again 'And as for the greetings from Temari… I think I'm going to leave them untouched.'

'What?' rasped at him from the other side of the phone 'But you said!...'

'I lied.' answered Yashamaru with a sweet smile. The voice on the other side of the line didn't speak up, probably numb with injustice 'Say hello from me to my kids also. Bye.'

The phone shut off with a quiet click, shining at him with a faint blue light. His favorite color. Oh, Daichi was so, so naive.

With a smile, he got up from the chair and took the apron from the hanger. It was early now, so every good adult was working now. And he was a good adult. So he had to work also. After a few seconds, he went out of the room, looking at the crying face of yet another child with cavities and nervous mother who had barely no money to pay for treatment.

'Next!' Oh, he loved his job.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato spent the day, as usual, on the phone. Smoking his way through a whole package of cigarettes, a real feat for him, who usually managed to hold onto the three-four ciggies a day routine, but the nervousness commanded him to do something, and the new pack of cigarettes was handy and allowed him to talk on the device at the same time.

Sarutobi's mail had arrived, completely against what he was expecting on regards of speed, and having nothing better to do, he'd gone through the names he'd received. He'd Google'd all of them, which instantly ruled two of them out, because he couldn't find any information on them (not that it meant they would be bad. Just that he couldn't find any info and that made him nervous and would probably make Ibiki's work a little harder), then he'd ruled out another one because it would take him an over an hour trip to get there on the bus. That had left him with five possible candidates.

He'd started calling the offices, then, which had left him with two people less, because neither doctors had any available schedules -and the one that did would be only at night. And maybe he could sacrifice another night and go there, but he overused Iruka's kindness as it was, and while he might be paying fairly at the boy, he also knew he had his own studies to worry about, and two nights a week was more than enough. Which left him down with three candidates: Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura and Senju Tobirama.

Those were the names he mailed to his… boss, for lack of a better term to describe the relationship he had with Ibiki. He'd gotten a call from him two hours later. Apparently Utatane had written an incredibly popular book, something he had known from his searches, and specialized in group therapy. The topic of group therapy had arisen once or twice in the past, when he'd first started his sessions with Sarutobi-sensei, but it had been quickly discarded by the older man once he'd realized some of the causes of the problems Minato had been experiencing back then.

Another thing he hadn't known, and that he seriously couldn't figure how Ibiki did, was that she was researching for new material for a new book. And the last Minato wanted was other people to know what happened to him, even under anonymous state. Mitokado had studied with both Homura and Sarutobi-sensei; which explained why the old man spoke the local dialect, and there really wasn't anything bad to say about him: the man had as many years of experience as Sarutobi had, worked one on one and apparently could be trusted with patient confidentiality. Not that he thought Utatane would just steal stuff from her patients without getting them to agree first… Just in case, really.

As for the last one… Senju was some good years younger than the other ones, which really meant nothing considering the whole of them were nearing their seventies and well deserved retirements. Senju was a man on his mid-forties and had been first a doctor before becoming a psychologist.

'I suggest you to arrange an interview and just pick the one you like the most.' The older man said, to which Minato had, sadly enough, no other option than agreeing. Not because he didn't want to go to therapy, as liking it or not, he felt he needed it.

And he wasn't terrified about being strapped down to a bed in a padded room anymore, and besides, Ibiki had been the one to find Sarutobi-sensei, and it had been a world of help. He wouldn't just tell him to do that unless they were safe for him. So he'd called both their secretaries, arranged both meetings for the next days during the time Naruto was at kinder so he'd have time to actually talk with them for at least twenty minutes and make himself an idea of what he would be getting at. Which was horrible, because he hated taking decisions, but unfortunately, it was for his own good… not to mention Naruto's.

He couldn't let what happened two years ago happen again. He'd been thinking about it when he finally set himself to making lunch, managing to get everything done without more than a cut on his index finger (miraculous, given the poor concentration he was having at the moment), and it wasn't until he was done that he realized he'd cooked for three, rather than just the two of them.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'…'

Silence. He heard silence. The dog barked. The clock rang. The door clicked. People talked. Shoes tapped. Puddles sploshed. Rain patted. Zips zipped. Songs sang. And his own car growled. But all he heard around him was deafening sound. Almost like if he was drowning. What has he done. Oh gods. What has he done… He moved his hands automatically, not even remembering how he got out of his office and if he actually was talked to by anyone or not. He remembered sitting at the desk and trying to unfold the mystery of the mistake, but even as the numbers were still simple letters in right order he didn't see any. Just no mistake. None at all.

And now, he was driving. Mechanically, automatically, dully and without thinking. He passed one car, almost making a head crash with the one from another line and in the last nick of time he turned away, not even feeling the reality of what he just did. He just drove. Drove the car he wasn't really in… What has he done. By dear merciful gods' names, what has he done!... He just sold off an information he swore to never tell to someone who wanted it the most!... He sold it and obtained… nothing. No peace of mind. No security. Nothing. Nothing.

The word still rang in his head, getting bigger and more dull, like if he had echo in his skull when he entered the first building. Temari waited for him with a little tired, bored face. Like always. And he looked at her and took her hand. Like always. But somehow, he couldn't move. What has he done to them all? He just told Yashamaru… he told Yashamaru… because Temari seeked help… seeked help there… If only he was there none of this would happen…

'Daddy?' asked the girl, looking at the saffron haired man with confusion as he just stared at her with hollow gaze. The gaze so empty she could swear his grayish eyes suddenly became pitch black – and lost all possible bottom they could have. Just went to… nowhere. 'Is something wrong, daddy?...'

Daichi budged like if he someone woke him up from a deep slumber.

'Oh… nothing… nothing.' he slurred, looking at her with light frown, then with a grimace that he couldn't really form into anything unintelligible. Temari's eyes widened. 'Just… don't let go of my hand.'

And he took her with him, strolling to the car through the cold drizzle, for the first time locking her in the front seat for an adult passenger. She looked at him through the whole process if him tucking her into seatbelts with fear, but didn't dare to say anything. Something bad has happened. Something very, very bad.

'Daddy…' she tried again, wanting to look at his emotions when they were all on their seats, just before turning the car on 'Daddy… did… did something…'

The man looked at her with the glazed over eyes.

'I just want to have an eye on you.' he murmured and turned the car on. The girl closed her mouth. Now she was sure. It was a catastrophe. The car drove through the night once again, making careless moves, scaring her speechless. But as a little girl she could do nothing about it, so she just sat in silence as they almost crashed with a truck and passed the tree with a dangerous turn that scratched something off the back side of the car. If she had luck, this wouldn't end bad.

Alas, they finally got to the another building if the school in Akasuna district. Finally. She was about to let go of a breath when the man left her to wait only to jump hearing how he opened another door completely out of sudden.

'Get out of the car.' Daichi muttered in this dimmed, murmuring voice. She looked at him, but he didn't seem to be angry. Or joking, Or doing anything at all. Actually, she couldn't understand what was happening with his expression. And somehow, it made her not want to disobey him at all. She felt like if something bad was happening and that now she was not a big girl, but a little helpless child that had to rely on strong adult. She got out of the car without a word of complaint.

And just when she did that, Daichi took her in his arms, hugging her tightly. She looked at him, confused. He never behaved like that before.

'Daddy, what…' she started again in a thin voice, but she was cut off as he closed off his car and started walking with her quickly, like if he was afraid that someone was tracking them 'Daddy?...'

'I just want to be sure you're with me.' She looked at him for a moment. Then without a protest, she encircled his neck with her arms, hugging herself firmly, observing the darkening air. Now she finally understood what that expression was. It was not a joke and not anything unintelligible. It was fear. The uneasiness in her grew. Now she knew that there surely was a catastrophe happening. But Kankuro didn't.

'Hi dad-' he started but didn't end as Daichi just crouched in front of him and hugged him tightly also, making him choke on his own words. 'Wha… what's going on?...'

'Nothing.' said the man with the same hollow voice as he just took up the second of his kids up, having now full hands of them and their bags. That weighted a lot, but somehow he didn't even feel a bit of it. 'Just want to feel you near me.'

And with that, he started moving out of the school again, looking around like if something was about to start chasing them. Kankuro looked at Temari with widened eyes, not getting anything out of it. But the blonde only hugged herself to her father, not sending him any signals. That was more than enough.

A moment later, both kids were tucked on him like pieces of modeling clay they didn't play for long, soaking in the drizzle he was getting them through. Fear. They felt fear. And they wouldn't have to if he just didn't act so carelessly!... If only… if only he didn't tell Yashamaru… He turned the engine on and drove away. One more kid to go. Just one (he moved onto the street) more (pushed the gas pedal) kid (obtained the right speed) to (drove) go (drove) and they (drove…) would (Temari said something) be (Temari said something) home at last (Kankuro said something) finally (they both said something) in their own safe home-

'DAD!' screeched the boy, pushing him on the arm and making him get out of the train of thoughts. And just right in to make a turn. A moment later and they would make a nice head crash with bus, making three stains on the street, probably mix of cheery red, strawberry red and transparent pinkish organs of the whole rest…

'I'm sorry.' he said automatically, looking at the road and losing it from his sight once again. But luckily, this time the car stayed on the right side of the road.

Finally, they saw the third known building. And once again, Daichi made them all go out and hold his hands, holding them tighter than they were able to squeeze back. Gaara looked at them with confusion. Daddy has never made his siblings go out of the car to take him back home from kindergarten. Especially when he parked so close to the fence.

'Daddy?..' he mewled, looking up at the saffron haired man as Asuma has finally closed the umbrella above him 'Hello…'

'Gaara.' said the man with a hushed up tone. Then he looked at him with such fear, that the redhead stepped back. What… why… why was daddy looking at him like that?... But just before he leapt into the instinct of running away, the man leaned down, circling his arms around him so tightly, he barely could breathe.

'It's time…' he muttered into his ear '…for you to go to hospital and take the bandages off. Thank you for taking care of him.' The other man stared.

'Ah… eh, no problem, I guess…' said Asuma, smiling weakly, not knowing what to do 'Gaara was very good, just once he got a little nervous and he… He bit…' The man didn't answer, hugging the redhead like a small plushie.

'He did what?...' he muttered, but Asuma just waved his hand at him. He didn't seem to listen to him at all.

'Nothing, nothing…' he said with a light laughter 'Did something bad happen, Mr. Sabaku?...' The man was silent again. Asuma looked at him, then at two other kids he barely knew anything about besides that they represented the scribbles on documents Gaara had with him when he was entered to the place. He scratched his beard in uneasiness.

'Ah… okay then I guess I'll be going…' he said finally 'Good you came… just take them home safely and spend a nice warm evening with a cup of tea or something… it all will be better tomorrow.' When the man didn't respond, Asuma just shrugged and with quick byes he moved outside, leaving them be. Sabakus were a hard family to get to along with and he couldn't waste much more time. He also had a family to get back to after all. After a minute, maybe two, Daichi finally moved. He stood up, coddling the redhead in his arms when he stuck to him tightly and he turned around to look at the tiny back of the man moving in the rain in his own, pine green umbrella. And he wanted to scream.

'No, it won't be better tomorrow.' he muttered in a very faint whisper, barely recognizable through the tapping of the rain 'Nothing will be…' He looked down at the other kids. They looked back, their expression full of concern and real fear. All of them… all of them were endangered because he…

He told Yashamaru where they all lived.

Exactly.

Because he never did before. After Karura's death, after all that happened he just grabbed the kids one night, packed everything he could pack in one hour and drove away with all he had on the marriage's account and in his wallet, praying for the blond man to not search for them. He managed to hide from him for almost two years, better, worse, but safe and secure. And all Yashamaru had was his office phone he obtained from his grandmother when he once called her asking for help. He lived in fear for weeks wondering if the blond could track them down with every call, but nothing of that happened. Basically, he had no reason to be afraid of him so much as he was the father of the three and thus, the closest family having all rights to take care of them. But with Yashamaru you never knew.

That's why he had this trial going on with him, for so long, for months… And now… and now he told him, because he didn't want to lose his kids, he didn't want to make it worse, for a short moment he believed that the blond had mercy in him for them all… and once again, he burned his hands on the hot blond stove. To the point of being blind. What was he supposed to do now?... Now, when Yashamaru knew where they lived and he could just come anytime and… and do something!...

…not that he could do anything without winning a trail but with Yashamaru, you never knew…

He closed the doors of his car, locking them up, still coddling the redhead in his arms. The rain seeped on the windows in a lazy, quiet dripping. There was nothing he could do. He couldn't call Minato, because he closed that line forever a few days ago. The man was not very stable anyway. Who knew how he would react if he told him in what kind of dirt they were all sitting in. He couldn't call his grandmother as she still lived in a deep sorrow and held a grudge against him for making the wrong choices, wrong moves, wrong rights… in her opinion. And sadly, her opinion was the only opinion that mattered to her. Since always.

He couldn't call his old friends he let go of once he moved out of his hometown. They were too far away. He couldn't call Yura who backstabbed him in work, not trusting him with anything anymore, so why with kids. They were the most precious things he had, he couldn't take a risk… And he couldn't call boss or Baki or boss' secretary or anyone else in this cold town, because whoever else he would call wouldn't care or wouldn't give a damn. He was stuck. Stuck in his own dirt. Deep…

'Daddy?...' muttered Gaara, looking up at him with big green eyes that held fear and confusion. From the seat on his right side, the blonde girl also sent him a concerned gaze. His back burned with questions that were placed there by yet another stare.

'It's nothing, Gaara.' he muttered more to himself than to the kid, rocking him lightly (or was he actually rocking himself?) and kissing him on the bandage 'Everything will be all right, it will be… it will be… there has to be way out…' The only problem was that he had seen none. None of any ways out. At all.

But he had to do something. Something. Anything. Anything!... He couldn't just sit there like that… 'Dad?...' finally sounded through the air like a single chime of the stronger bell 'Dad?... Is everything all right? You look like if you've seen something scary…' Daichi turned his head to the side, pointing he was listening to Kankuro, staring at the side shelf in front of Temari's legs.

'Yes, everything's fine.' he said in a calm, tired tone. 'I'm just… thinking. I need to do that for a bit.'

'Will you be doing that for long?...' piped in Temari with a tiny voice, like if she was afraid to speak up. Those were rare moments when he really noticed she was almost weaker than her brothers 'It's cold in here…'

'No, not for long. Just a bit.' he confirmed and looked again at the bundle in his arms. Gaara gazed at him still with those green eyes, full of tension. Without much thinking, he kissed the bandage once again, making him gurgle quizzically and he closed his eyes. He knew that other kids wanted to be kissed too. But now he didn't have hands or head to play with fair sharing. Even if all he wanted was melting them all one into a nice square and hide it into the box of his heart where no one would be searching because rarely anyone even suspected he could have a heart.

Sadly, it was an option that was not available for them at all. He opened his eyes, examining Gaara again. But maybe… maybe there was a possibility for them to do something… after all, he had no other ways to move on the check board. After tucking Gaara behind him and Temari along with Kankuro, he quietly started the engine and moved into the rain once again. He could as well try everything he could do.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Tsunade was having a boring night. Boring to the point of starting to make sculptures of modeling clay yet once again. Nobody has broken the damned finger on her change and she was left with nothing to do. Not that she minded it, she was paid for free. And yet, it was not the reason she got stuck in the dirty hospital in the middle of nowhere. Her real aim was to help someone, damn it!... And now look at her. Bored to death, yawning-

'Doctor Tsunade!...' -biting her tongue, oh damn!...

'What is it?' she asked, trying not to whine at the sudden pain she made to herself, glaring only a bit at Shizune 'It's late, don't scream or you will wake the patients!'

'Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Tsunade, I didn't want to…' said the girl, blushing a little. Tsunade glared at her still. The girl coughed 'But… but it's them!... The Sabakus are here again… at this hour!...'

That made the blonde stop from saying what she was about to say. Sabakus? The family with redhead kid who cut his forehead? Here?

'Gods, that man really is unlucky!...' she muttered to herself, getting up from her stool 'What's happened this time?'

'The problem is that… nothing.' was the answer 'Nothing has happened, Tsunade-sama.'

'Nothing?' she raised an eyebrow.

'Nothing.' Repeated Shizune with the same tone 'They came here just to take off the stitches.'

'What- stitches?...' The older woman looked at the younger one for a moment with a frown. But she didn't seem to be joking. 'At this hour? It's time for bad accidents only now, not some stitches!... They were supposed to show up days ago anyway!'

'I see… I'll tell them to come tomorrow then-'

'Ah no, no, let them in.' said Tsunade, immediately cutting the girl off 'It's only a cosmetic thing and I'm bored anyway. Go on.' A few moments later, a full family of Sabakus entered her small room, minus the two kids, which were taken out by Shizune yet once again to not make them look at the operation. She sighed, getting up from the stool and started preparing the tools.

'Rough night, eh?' she said conversationally. But the man didn't answer 'Very cold…'

'Yes.'

'How was Gaara? Was everything okay with his wound, no bleeding, no pus leaking out?

'Yes.' said the man again with the same, transparent tone. She turned around to look at him. He looked like if he was about to die on the bed. And the redhead didn't cope much better.

'That means that 'yes, it was all right' or 'yes, there were problems''? she asked. Finally, he turned his gaze at her. She shivered. He not only looked like death but stared like death.

'Yes, it was all right.' he said and turned to gaze at the floor again. Not very friendly at all. With a frown, she decided to move to the actual person she was supposed to talk to.

'Hello, Gaara' she chirped at the kid, making her face go into that warm, friendly smile of her that everyone knew as a little 'scary' after she started to get on with her. But the redhead didn't seem to be intimidated by it at all 'We meet again, isn't this nice? How's my dog and cat doing?'

'Hello.' The redhead looked at her with a little sad face, not protesting against her undoing the bandage. She was nice. He liked her and he would be more than happy to be here again even if last time he was there it hurt him a lot. But not now when daddy was behaving so strange and Kankuro and Temari were also having these weird looks and he didn't know what was going on and… 'Foxie and raccoonie are good. I gave foxie to Naruto.'

'Naruto, eh? He is a friend of yours?' she continued, looking at the stitches. The skin around them looked nice, well healed. But it could take some work to get them out of there. But as long as she had time, she hadn't seen a problem with it 'And what about your uncle? Is he also doing well?' She shot back a curious glance at the saffron haired man, but to her disappointment, she hadn't seen any reaction on the still face. So good at hiding or so emotionless toward his lover?... With resignation she started cleaning the skin around the wounds. Gaara grimaced a bit, making the man budge a little and hold onto him but nothing beside that. Not even one coddling word.

'Naruto is Naruto's dad son.' said Gaara, looking a bit at her, then, in a faint memory that turned on in his head, he closed his eyes like he felt he should 'And about Naruto's dad… I dunno. Daddy forbade us to see them. Dunno why.'

'Ah, forbade, yes?...' she said, then looked up at the saffron haired man. For a moment he frowned, but he didn't seem to deal with much of emotions. 'So, a quarrel…'

'An argument.' said the man, not looking at her 'I don't want to talk about it. It's none of your business anyway.'

'Oh, I only wanted to…'

'None of your business!'

She winced, holding up her smile and turned to Gaara again, seeing he has closed his eyes. Oh, what a…! None of her business, true! But to be so rude toward her!... In one moment she saw why the quarrel had happened. If he behaved like that at home, no wonder he drove the lover away. Gays. Who could get them, really. They were sometimes worse than PMSing girls. With one swift move, she took out the first stitch. Gaara grimaced. Poor, poor kid… no wonder he was looking so strained.

'Once upon a time…' she started, giving a man a glare and returning to the redhead. The kid relaxed a bit, sharpening his hearing. Great. 'There lived a bad wizard who had three kids…'

Maybe for once she could teach not also a kid, but a parent something good this time.

A half an hour later, the forehead was cleaned out from any stitches, pinkish with the scar that looked no more and no less like a never ended lineart of a heart. Funny, how fate decided to play on the kid's lifelong image. But seeing his features that would be a killer sign for ladies. '…and the wizard was gone and they all lived happily ever after.' she ended with a smile, patting the kid on the knee lightly 'You can open your eyes Gaara, we're done.' Like with a switch the eyelids of the child has opened up, looking at her, but instead of a smile, the hurt grimace was shown.

'I didn't like that story much.' he said pouting at her and hoped down from his father's knees to go and look at himself at the mirror that stood there for all patients that wanted to take a look at themselves 'The wizard didn't seem that bad.'

Tsunade smiled at that a little bitterly.

'I'm sorry, Gaara. Next time I will tell you some nicer story, okay?' with that she stood up and looked at the man who didn't move much for the last time, having his mind somewhere in the la-la-land, because he rarely reacted at what she said during the story. And she really said much. More, she poked at the previous accident quite obviously 'About the treatment… I would recommend for him to not get that under the sun much. Some nice hat would be good, though knowing the weather it wouldn't be probably much of a problem… did you hear me, Mr. Sabaku?'

'Yes.' And once again that dull, transparent 'yes.' That was starting to get more than annoying. That was starting to get worrying. Was the man having a depression?...

'Gaara, could you get out of the room? Go sit with your siblings for a moment, I need to talk with your dad…' she said with a normal tone, but not without a pressure. The redhead looked at her, then went out of the room without a word of protest. Once the doors closed after him, she looked down at the man with a frown. 'Okay, pretty guy, what's wrong with you? You act like a puppet with no strings. It's not my concern at all, but seeing how it distresses the kid I guess I just have to butt in, old woman with nothing to do, you know the drill. Spill.' The man didn't move. Only chuckled. A little hopeless chuckle of people who were dying under the block of ice in the middle of North Pole where no one heard them. 'Did you hear what I said?' she asked a little louder. This time the tired, hollow gaze finally looked at her up from the floor.

'Once upon a time there was a wizard…' he muttered, looking at her like if he was telling her a secret 'That loved his kids so much he decided to charm the whole world and put everyone to sleep so his kids would be safe… and when he didn't manage on doing that, the people got angered and started chasing him, threatening they would kill him and his daughter and sons… and because he tried to charm the whole world, there was no one that could help. Only one old witch who knew how to make meds and love potions out of nothing had beds that were not full of shards of glass and forgotten needless…'

A pause. A breath. Then the man looked at her with more concentrated, pleading gaze. She frowned. Now she finally felt he was talking to her.

'Knock, knock, witch, the helper of the ones who need you.' He muttered 'Will you lend me a bed or two to let me stay a night? I have nothing but gratefulness for you but the god of Sun shall bless you tomorrow with its own smile if you will let us stay.' The silence fell on the room. Tsunade's frown deepened. For a childish story the request… the request seemed to be real.

'You want me to let you stay a night?' she asked, looking at the man. Daichi didn't even waver under her anxious stare 'Here? But it's hospital-'

'Which means a place for people that need it. Please. We will be gone by morning.' he whispered, still piercing her with his stare 'I can't go back home. Not… now. Only this night.'

'Well, Mr. Sabaku, if I would go and make all of such wishes true there would be no beds for those who really need them-'

'If there will be such happening, we will go away. Just a moment till then. I know you have beds. I saw them when I went here.' Tsunade didn't answer. The thing the man was asking, was against the rules. She could not just go and let him stay right there and like that. Maybe if he asked for Gaara to stay she could meddle a bit as he was under the treatment on healing. But this…

'I'm sorry, but I can't help you there, Mr. Sabaku.' she said finally. After a moment of a silent contest of balancing the strengths, the man finally stood up.

'I understand. Thank you.' he said and he got out of the room 'You made the right choice, wizard's family is cursed. I just hope you won't regret that later.' With that, he moved along, closing the door with frowning Tsunade and walked up to his kids, holding up Kankuro this time and making Temari and Gaara hold onto his hand. So… that was it. He had nothing else to go to. He could as well just go to home and wait for anything that was supposed to come for him. Just like that.

With a silent sob he got out of the hospital, locked his kids in seatbelts and drove them quietly home. He didn't remember much about what happened later. Just when he finally tucked them all under his arms on the tight and hard bed of Temari, he knew it was yet another night that he wouldn't be able to sleep at all. Just because once he would close his eyes, he might've find that one of those beating hearts - or worse, all of them – was missing. And he would never forgive himself if that would happen. He cuddled one of the quietly breathing bodies to his face, kissing the forehead (as the texture of hair said, it was Temari) and kept on laying, listening to every sound around him, waiting, waiting…

And, despite all his fears and unknowns, merciful Morpheus finally let go of the sand he was holding and closed his eyes off with a gentle move. The clock ticked third in the morning. The hour of suicidal madmen. Meaning, just in the right time.


	13. 13: Chicken curry

It was Friday. Lawdy, he didn't know how he'd managed, but he had, so maybe Sarutobi-sensei was right and he didn't need to go through his old prescription (even though the semi-expired blue pills were the only thing that had helped him survive through Monday and Tuesday, and more importantly, actually let him sleep), but still, it was a feat he hadn't expected of himself. Especially after Tuesday, when he'd gone pick Naru up and Gaara had been there. And damn, he could have killed his father if he'd been around, because apparently he hadn't explained shit to the little redhead, and Gaara thought he didn't want to take him to his home because he'd done something bad and had started crying, which had made Naruto cry, and almost made him start to cry himself.

The next day, when he'd gone to take Naruto to school, he had taken Sarutobi-sensei (he kept wondering if he might be related to his old psychoanalyst)apart and asked him if he thought it would be too troublesome to take care of Naruto for a few hours after classes. Of course, he'd leave lunch with him and would come pick him up around roughly five PM, because he was having problems with the upcoming exams, and had loads of things to correct and errands to run to be ready and he couldn't do that with Naruto around…

The man had thankfully understood and said it was no problem, so Minato had spent the last three days fighting his paternal urges and giving Naruto standard cheese/ham sandwiches to take to school (more than enough for the both of them) and told Naruto that if there were any leftovers, he should give them to Gaara. He didn't know if the redhead gave them to his siblings or hell, even their father, and the truth was that he didn't care. Gaara wasn't at the age where he should be missing meals because some bastard decided to go paranoid on his ass, and if the man so much as dared to say anything about it to him, Minato would talk with Asuma himself.

He took the free time to go and actually meet both men, and even though he was surprised about how young he looked despite the shockingly ivory hair (or maybe because of his youthful looks), he found he liked Senju better, and that's who he had concerted his sessions with. Both had been professional and attentive, but the younger man just seemed warmer than Homura had been, and he knew it was important for him to feel able to actually talk with the person who was supposed to help him help himself. Besides, Ibiki had run their background for him. He knew they had to be good, and at least he could be sure they hadn't accidentally driven anyone to suicide by giving their patients the wrong medication.

So he'd had a second interview with the man, and they were set to start in a couple weeks, after he contacted Sarutobi-sensei to let him know who he had chosen and give time for his medical file to arrive and give the professional time to read what he would be working with and what to expect of him. That was perfectly fine with the blonde, who was already feeling more like a human being and less like a ticking bomb just by knowing that he would be starting therapy again, not to mention the long talk he'd had with Sarutobi-sensei again, who had taken the time to reassure him that if he didn't like the new psychiatrist or felt uncomfortable, he could always get a new one.

Once his own problems were solved, however, he had the kid's to care for. Gaara had finally taken his stitches off, and Naruto kept telling him how awesome it looked and how it was a shame it would eventually fade a lot- he seemed to press in that topic a lot, which made him wonder if maybe Gaara was being bullied at kinder because the mark, from what little he had seen of the redhead in the time did look like a heart, but at least he knew Naruto was sticking to him like glue, so it couldn't be too bad… What was bad, however, was the weather. On Sunday, slush fell.

The weather channel told that Monday would be warmer, but by Wednesday, Thursday the latest, it would likely snow. And that meant the man had run out of time and obviously reached no conclusion. That morning, Asuma had told him quite clearly that his patience had was running out. He had to talk with him soon and tell him… something, anything that would change his mind. He wished he were starting therapy this week so he could discuss the situation with someone, but it wouldn't have worked anyway, it was too personal for him to discuss it openly with someone he had just met, comfortable or not.

So he spent the day agonizing about it even though it would lead to nothing good on his behalf and that afternoon when he went to pick Naruto up, he got inside the school to give Gaara a quick hug and tell the teacher he would be waiting outside for Sabaku to talk to him, and to please wait inside with the kids. He just hoped the walls were thin enough to let the taller man hear when the man went at him with a hatchet…

And the slush kept falling down. The sandy colored car drove lazily, almost in sleeping daze as its owner was afraid to not get into a slick ground and not to collide with the car in front of him. It was the last thing he wanted and needed now – the problems with a machine that was his main transport and by means, one of the safest place he had. He looked out of the windows, noticing the building of kindergarten that in this atmosphere could be mistaken for any other buildings he passed already – even if it had a little different structure from what he saw in other schools. But that was not what mattered now, really. What mattered was only now was Gaara – the third and the last kid he had to take care of today to go home and finally start to think about his own needs.

He looked at the mirror, and tucked higher the scarf and a hood. Sadly, he didn't have anything warmer with him – gods, why did it have to be such a weather today! - and then he stopped the car. There. He exited it in quick movement and crossed the street in quick movements, trying to not get water onto his legs and finally got closer to the main door. Of course, he noticed the blonde smoking at the door, but as it was hardly anything that mattered to him, he just passed the scene with indifference, entering the room. Finally, some warmth.

'Yes, how can I help you?' asked the bearded though man, tossing him a glance as he was trying to tuck the redhead into oversized sweater 'Just give me a moment, I need to take care of it…' The man looked at him for a moment, then turned his gaze at the little child. The redhead looked back, cuddling the teddy to himself and staring at him with big green eyes. Bingo.

'Hello.' he muttered, bending down to the kid and smiling at him, even if the expression came out invisible, hidden behind a scarf 'How are you?'

'Hello.' muttered the redhead without a sign of awareness. The teacher looked at him with confusion 'I'm fine, waiting for daddy to come. And you?'

'Oh, I'm a little lost. Is this the med clinic for little angels like you?' he said and reached out to stroke the red hair, tossing the glance to a man. The kid kept on looking at him for a moment, then leaned into a touch. So naïve. So soft. 'Because it looks like the Hospital of Rosemary for children… are you the patient?'

'No.'

He smiled. So sweet he was. Unlike the other man who looked at him with deepening frown and confusion, probably unsure if to butt in. But the silence didn't last for long.

'Excuse me, but… this is not a hospital, it's the kindergarten' he said in a slow tone, like if he was trying to read a very hard sentence, observing him closely ''Three Hazelnuts'. Saint Rosemary is on the other side of the street. And please, stop touching the kid unless you're his family or keeper.'

The man smiled in answer.

'Oh no.' he said, letting go of the child and smiling at them both 'I just mistook the places… I'm sorry, I'll leave now. Be a good boy then, angel.' And with that, he left exactly the same way he came in.

'Oh, I'm sorry.' he muttered as he accidentally bumped into the man (smoking outside in such weather!... Ugh! But at least he thought about the kids, if it wasn't the man who made him stand there) and he walked away to the car. This kindergarten really wasn't anything special, until now. Now it was one and only of a kind. Just like Akasuna district and Primary Suna School… He closed the door and smiled to himself, watching his own eyes in the mirror for a moment. Finally, he found them all. Mission accomplished.

Then, Yashamaru drove away.

After a few minutes of silence, another car has turned from the street and halted near the fence in a calm stop. But the man who got outside of it, was far from calm. In jerky, scared moves he looked around once he got out of the car and then he turned to get the other kids out of there, even if the weather was far from admirable for such poorly clothes they wore. But he couldn't leave them inside. He only felt good when he felt them close to him. When he knew where they were…

The saffron haired man was scared. The whole situation lasted from a few days now. A few days of nothing, when he was expecting the bomb to explode. It was almost like counting the time he didn't know the right numbers to. He tried to go through it like if nothing has happened, making kids get up, dressed them, drove them to school and came back for them. But every time he did he feared that one time he would enter the building of a school or maybe wake up and he would find one of his kids (if not two or three!...) missing. Luckily, it didn't happen yet and maybe he was paranoiac, but he just couldn't calm down. The sole idea seemed to be just so terrifying… and he couldn't even imagine how he would cope with that if it would happen. He found no solutions, not for this or anything else.

It was like if he lived in a black pitch from a few days. No solutions. No answers. Just blinding darkness and hands in ropes… Ignoring the protest of Kankuro, who disliked the strong hold he made on him, he leapt through the wind and falling frozen water, almost dismissing that there was anyone outside of the kindergarten until he almost crashed with him, his mind being already two minutes ahead of him, with his kid missing from kindergarten and him panicking in the hallways. And when he finally noticed the man, absurdly, his fear grew. Gaara.

After a moment of hesitation torn between telling the man off and stepping inside he chose the second, only to have a glance at his kid in front of him. Then, his legs almost gave out. Safe. All his kids were safe. Maybe he really was stressing out too much then…

'Oh, Mr. Sabaku. So you came.' said Asuma, looking at him from the floor where he was trying to make the old shoes fit the small legs of the redhead 'And there I thought nothing will stop you from wasting another hour wherever you spend them… no wonder, it's probably warm, not s n o w I n g there…'

'As in every building.' Daichi cut off, not really understanding what was the man trying to get on and he looked at the kid. The redhead gazed at him with green eyes, the scar standing out brightly in the warm light of the light bubble. 'Gaara, come on, we're going home-'

'Oh no, please, let me take care of him for another five minutes.' Interrupted the teach, looking up at him from the floor. Daichi frowned. What was the teach saying?... 'And actually, the other kids too… they need to be tucked properly in such w e a t h e r. You can go and talk to the parent outside in the meantime. Just to kill time.'

Daichi turned over to look at the blonde hair, barely visible through the thick glass and turned back to the bearded person with a sour grimace. Oh no. He himself shouted so many bad words at him and made the situation closed off definitely. He didn't want to have another cold and meaningless exchange of the words with him. The matter was closed. All he needed now was to be close to his kids. 'I'd rather not.' He said finally. The other man sighed, letting go of Gaara's shoes and then he looked at him with such strength Daichi budged on spot.

'I i n s i s t.' he muttered through clenched teeth 'I will take care of them all. In any case I would scream and murder. Would you please now go out and let me take care of kids as I need to do? It's my duty and all, wouldn't want to be interrupted.'

Daichi opened his mouth, but then one finger showed him the door and somehow he felt there was no arguing with that. Irritated he was being taken care of like a five years old, he opened the door outside and stepped on the cold, not even tossing one glance at the blonde's face. In his opinion, they had nothing to talk about.

Minato was too busy on his own personal fantasy of how long would it take for the FBI to find his remains after the man was through with him. Not very long, he betted. Sabaku didn't exactly seem like the kind to coldly think things through, more like follow a crazy instincts to get rid of the evidence as fast as possible. What would happen to Naruto once he died? At the peak of his depression and paranoia, back in December 2005, he'd sent things so that if anything happened to him, all the money would go to a set found with a monthly allowance until he became eighteen, and he'd be staying with Jiraiya-sensei, even though the idea of what such a perverted mind could do to his only son… not that he had that many alternatives…

It was the man's' fault he tripped on him, considering the taller blonde hadn't changed positions in the last several minutes, but he still apologized profusely, which caused him to notice the oddly familiar features the man had. Because the voice revealed him to be a man, otherwise, half covered as he was, he would really have though him to be a woman, something in the lithe, shortish figure… Really familiar, though he couldn't put his finger on it. Probably some relative from the kids? He was so sleepy at mornings he could easily have missed the first Kazekage himself arriving in all his zombified glory until the thing went at his delicious meat like a rabid animal and tackled him down.

He'd been trying to remember where could he have seen such a person, feeling like if he almost, almost had reached the answer (it was just barely out of reach, something eluding him right in the corner of his eye) when Sabaku finally arrived, for some reason dragging his kids –kids wearing clothes that could hardly fall into the category of waterproof- out of the shelter of the car and into the cold drizzle. He tried to say something then, but the man just scowled and dragged the kids past him even faster, so he stayed where he was, waiting for him to come back up. No way he would make a scene in front of the kids.

Maybe Sarutobi-sensei would tell him something…? But he doubted it. He didn't seem to like Sabaku any more than he did. And by now, he liked him very little. It hadn't been even five full minutes before the man walked out again, making him wince at the fact that while the kids clothes weren't any more waterproof than his were, they had seemed consistently thicker than what he wore. Without a comment, he moved his umbrella so it covered the man more than he did himself and took another drag of his cigarette.

The other man looked up, surprised by the cold drizzle not falling on him in thin ropes and he turned his head to the side with a scowl. Stupid jokes. Like if that could protect him from anything that was supposed to come right now. It was obvious the whole thing was made up to make him stand there and such gestures just made him feel more angry. He could take the cold weather much better than anyone in this damned country. He didn't need pity. And yet, he didn't move from under the cover.

'Spare me this.' he muttered, watching the cold rain falling splashing on puddles in symmetrical circles 'What do you want?'

It took another moment for Minato to speak, because when he looked up he realized the man looked like hell, which he had somehow missing because of avoiding eye contact and not bringing his glasses because the sky was too whitish grey and gave him a headache, and seriously had the man slept in the past days? It seemed like if in the week they hadn't seen each other, he had lost some weight and decided to stop sleeping. Or start taking drugs. Only drugs were expensive and he knew he wouldn't be able to afford them.

'…you really have no one else to help you?' he finally asked, his voice saddened.

That made the other man turn around to him sharply, almost like if he wanted to jump on him with fists. Then, after a heartbeat he turned to the other side with the same fierce move, crossing his arms tightly and walking out from the umbrella to lean on the wall with his right side, showing him his back only. What the heck was the blond thinking, trying to talk to him like that? Not that it was anything insulting, but the heaviness of such words just poked at his guilty. Almost taking out the dull, hollow idea of the unworthiness. Helplessness. And failure. He didn't want to think what kind of a failure of a father he was. Not now. One more worry and he would stop sleeping at all.

He almost had the big screeching desperate 'SHUT UP' at the end of his tongue, but he bit it down like a bitter pill and swallowed back to the place it came from, wherever it was. He would not start a burden there. Just a short polite talk, that could be all. He had no intention of talking anything with blonde. It was the closed case.

'I do not wish to talk about this with you, Mr. Uzumaki.' he muttered with an exaggerating tone of too much politeness, actually reaching through that for another level of rude 'I don't see why this should be any of your concern anyway.'

The blond flinched and drew back, eyes widening as he saw the shorter frame tense up as he doubtlessly prepared to jump at him. It took him a moment or two to relax. It took him yet another to start getting angry.

'… me neither, but apparently it is. Or at least Sarutobi-sensei seems to think so.' he said in a low, controlled voice that wasn't the almost automatic one he had greeted their last telephonic conversation with, but it was at least halfway there. He walked back close to the older man and again covered him with the umbrella, though there was more distance between them, though he was only getting the back of his pants wet, considering he had a good jacket on him.

'On Tuesday he told me that if by the time it started snowing you didn't do something about Gaara's situation, he would call child services himself. He repeated that to me today. And I checked the weather channel, it will snow the day past tomorrow.'

The other man stilled. What?... Since when… how… He clenched and unclenched his fists on his forearms, feeling like the umbrella above him made more shadow over him than cover and only like if just now he felt it was cold outside, he started shivering.

'I…' he started, counting up the hours for complete nonsense reason. One two, five, thirteen, eighteen, forty two… forty eight hours. Two days meant forty eight hours. That was how much was left for him to be left with kids. Then the nice bearded man who liked to butt in into his life would take the phone and call the higher instances, making him… making him… He leaned on the wall with more weight, actually sliding down on it a bit as the strength from his legs weakened. No solution. He saw no solution. It was like if while walking in the dark with handcuffs someone would suddenly hit him on the head with something hard.

He could as well go and pack them up to drive away from the country. To where, he didn't know. Probably somewhere sunny and shiny. Like heaven. Just drive near the river, push the gas pedal and… No. That was wrong. Wrong thinking. Wrong… He closed his eyes, stopping the clattering of his teeth but only ever so little and breathed in and out. He had no answer to that.

'I… didn't know about this.' he muttered helplessly finally. Nothing else came to his mind. Minato begrudgingly stepped closer, one hand hesitating for at least five seconds before gingerly lying itself on the man's bicep, steadying him.

'…I didn't want to put pressures on you.' he said slowly, feeling even worse by what he was doing, but not seeing any way out of it. '…and I thought that you would think I was doing it as revenge myself or lying.'

'I…' The other man looked at the hand on his shoulder with a numb expression, barely feeling the heat it produced, not really recognizing what it provided. Then he just moved out of the reach, turning on his heels and circling Minato with the expression of man who was about to be executed, messing up his hair while he just held on them in tight holds. Then, he finally stopped, facing the wall and banged his hands on it, once, twice.

The more he thought of it the less good he saw of it. The child care would just take away it from him and nobody would allow him to see them again. Yashamaru would be automatically admitted as the only keeper as he was clean like a drop of water in eyes of the judge as he didn't do anything by living his perfect little life. That simply meant he was… screwed. Totally, completely screwed. Unless he decided to actually kill them all. Which wouldn't make them any less screwed, especially if someone of them would survive despite anything.

He lied his head on the wall in a movement of helplessness and closed his eyes for a moment. That was not fair. Simply not fair. And Minato… He rose his head. What Minato has anything to do with that?

'And why are you telling me this?' he muttered, looking at the blond like if it was the first time he saw him there 'What's in this for you to have at all? Because if you want to laugh, do it somewhere else, I don't feel very stable right now to guarantee that I won't choke you once you start.'

More of a dead sentence than a real threat. But he needed to say something. Anything. Just to not let the blond have a confusing theatre out of him. The worst of it was for the blond to think he was actually crazy.

'For me…?' Minato looked shocked at the man as he punched the wall, not really surprised, not really- 'For me?'

How did that man even dare to try and accuse him of anything…? He hadn't done anything wrong, anything at all! He'd gone over all he had done, each and every time, trying to pin point anything bad or evil or untrustworthy and had come empty handed. Maybe he was affectionate with kids, but so were most parents. It wasn't his fault he was widower. And it wasn't his fault.

'What did *I* do wrong for you to have such an opinion of me? I tried to help you! I took good care of your kids and nothing bad ever happened to them under my care. I didn't want them to have any more accidents that's why I offered to take care of Temari and Kankuro, but when you said no I didn't say anything about it, did I? if your kids founds the maps that was your doing, why would you give them to them anyway?' He barely paused to gasp some breath, continuing immediately. 'And then that call! You kids came on their own, and I told you as soon as they did, but you hung up. I sent you a message immediately and when you do call, it's to accuse me of stealing them?'

Daichi listened to him with a wince, like if the blond repeatedly just hit him with a knife on various parts of his body. And to tell the truth, he actually felt just like that. Like if he was being dragged out of the safe corner and being pointed at by a parent, uncle and made feel guilty for what he thought was the best… Finally, he closed his eyes, turning away for a moment. He needed to make a break. The stare of those blue eyes was too intense. After a breath, he turned back to the blond. His face showed nothing more than a bitter concern.

'And who did act like a clingy psycho? I never accused you of being child molester at all, I don't know where are you heading with this.' he said in a steady, but a little shivering tone. The nerves under the thick make up of calmness were tight like strings on violin 'I never gave them the maps too if you want to know. And all I did was what they needed to obtain for their thoughtlessness… which I didn't do properly anyway… oh, gods.' For a moment the saffron haired man hid his face in his hands in the moment of complete defeat. He felt so tired of fighting already. Of fighting with his lack of acting up to his own rules, to fighting with rules and with kids for breaking and not acting up to them.

'Look, I know I didn't really act like I should have but that case is over, you hear me? Over.' he muttered, uncovering his face and looking at the blond with harsh expression 'I can apologize, but don't expect anything else from me. I don't have time for such matters anymore. So… leave us alone.'

'I don't need your apologies.' the blond said, finally moving his eyes away. He really didn't. He didn't care for them and didn't really care for the older man either. 'You still don't get it, I'm not doing this for you. I don't even know what I should think of you, and either way, it's not my business.'

He startled lightly at the sound of thunder, faint and far away as it was, and what he said was bitter in his mouth, despite the fact it needed to be said.

'All I care about is my son, who thinks Gaara is his best friend in the world, and for your kids, all of whom seem to adore you despite the things they go through every day. Do you know how lucky Gaara was not to break his neck? Or puncture an eye? Or break his jaw? I can understand you are in a bad situation and I can understand you have reasons to do the things you do, whichever they are, but the point is that you left two little kids in charge of a seven-year old little girl, and if Gaara had fallen in a different angle, your older kids would have been left for hours, waiting for you to come by, with their brother's dead body. No means of getting out and no means of asking for help.'

'What the hell was I supposed to do then?' interrupted Daichi with annoyance 'Let them sit there unlocked to be sure they would be robbed or kidnapped? Or maybe not go to work to be fired? Taking them to work is out of question and I don't have money to another set of keys. Be smart and tell me what would you do in my situation because from my perspective it was feral but the least worst option of all!'

'Why can't you take them to work, exactly? Companies have services to take care of their kids, and you work in one, isn't that right? You are a widower, so you should have an easier time to get that service. Or what about your family? or friends, or a neighbor?'

'Did you even take a look at the place where I live at?' said Daichi, looking at the blond with disbelief 'This is a freaking Godly Wind Street where I live at! I live wall in wall with drug dealers and people who kidnap people to sell their kidneys on Ebay! I'd rather die than let any of those people inside my house, let alone take care of my kids!'

The black stare for a moment pierced the blond with a frown. Was the man joking or what? True, he never told him about himself much, but at least this one he should have been able to figure out himself… Especially once he stepped into the place himself. But he didn't seem to be joking. Daichi let out a breath and closed his eyes. Maybe holding up his life in a complete secret was not a good move after all. He leaned on the wall.

'We moved here not a whole year ago, leaving all friends in another town. I work day and night so I don't have time to make friends and my kids for their… unique looks don't get many invites for birthdays also.' he muttered in a quiet tone, looking at the drizzle. The never-ending slush fell from the sky like if it wanted to drown the world. And from the size of the puddles on the street he could say they had already managed to do that, at least partially 'Other friends are too far away to come over and my work… let's say I'd rather not try to bring that issue up now or… ever. Not possible.'

He tossed a quick glance at the blond, looking if he was buying his shortened version of everything. He was not telling him more, as any more would be too dangerous to be let outside. He didn't really know the man he was talking to. But it seemed that he wouldn't be satisfied without proper answers. It felt good to tell it to someone anyway.

'My family …' he spoke up again, still looking at the blond, then at the pause, he looked away '…dead, as you can see.' He added finally. It was not a whole truth, but he was not going to say more about it too. That would be too dangerous. For both of them 'That doesn't really help the matter also. So, as you see, I have very little choices when it comes to on whom to depend when I have to be away. So don't judge me by your standards, I don't have money for nanny.'

Minato gave the older man a pained look at the story, and barely caught himself before offering the man money. Not only he wouldn't take it, but it would make him too suspicious. Public translators had good money, but they didn't have enough to toss it away, either.

'What will you do, then?' he asked quietly, again covering the man with the umbrella without even seeming to realize it. 'I can take care of them, but if you don't want me to… I don't know what else I could do to do to help you.'

The man chuckled quietly, but it was a laughter void of any happiness.

'Unless you have one million of dollars to spare I don't think you can do anything.' he said, looking at the street with melancholy, for once wondering what would it be to actually have such money when he needed them. He could buy so many things, food, clothes, furniture… bah. Childish dreams. He looked up 'Why do you care anyway? You said you don't, so stop acting like if it was weighting down on your rich heart and get out of my way.'

He heard the offer, he heard it. But it was too tempting and he really couldn't take a risk of leaving Minato with kids. He would have to tell him about what kind of situation they were in and he doubted that his nature could handle the paranoia of being tracked. He nibbled at his mouth. 'Too bad' he thought bitterly 'Too bad…'

'I said I don't care about what you think of me or your reasons. I do care about those kids.' The younger man said lowly. A million…? That bad was the situation. He looked away, his expression smoothening out into something like bitter indifference. A very thin layer of it while at that. 'I told you before. I was in a bad situation, that's why I had to move. If I hadn't had help, I would have lost Naruto.'

'I don't really think that you can compare your situation to mine, whatever yours was.' said the saffron haired man without even looking at the blond. 'And you said right, those are my kids, so you shouldn't care. Who are you anyway? For a man who wants to take care of the only things I value you told me very little of yourself.' And it was his stupidity to actually go along that lack of knowledge before, but that was his mistake. But he was not doing it again. He glanced at the window. His kids seemed to be more than ready to go home with him. But still, he hesitated.

'If I told you about myself, I think it would be fair for you to tell me more about you, Santa Claus.' he muttered, looking back at Minato 'Don't you think?'

'After my wife died, things got difficult. Then Naruto had that accident. And a person of my past found me and decided to stalk me.' Minato fished a new cigarette from his pocket, and lit it, taking a drag before answering the man in that calm, emotionless tone. 'Shortly after it she filled a lawsuit against me and tried to convince a court that I was an unfit father. If it hadn't been because I was already in therapy and my doctor could testify I wasn't a danger for Naruto or myself, she would probably have dragged it for months. In the meantime, I had to put my uncle as temporary tutor, and I had to do all of that willingly because good will is nicely seen by courts and none of it makes you instantly guilty. '

Daichi looked at the blond in silence. Then he again, steered his gaze at the puddles of water in front of him. That sounded… familiar. A bit too familiar for his tastes.

'Then you really had it bad.' he said finally, not knowing if he spoke more of Minato or of himself 'Should I assume you decided to kidnap your kid from uncle and move away in secret or something? Because it doesn't seem like if you were your own uncle to Naruto.'

There was a small moment where the blond choked on the smoke he had on his mouth when he tried to do something between gasping and laughing.

'N-no, that ended on 2006. I won the lawsuit and everything. But she kept bothering us and as the kind law system in Fire country didn't want to give me a restraining order on her, I took Naruto and left.'

'Sometimes even restraining order is too little.' said Daichi thoughtfully, looking up to the sky. Then he moved like if he snapped out of some daze he was in and looked back at the window once again. Kankuro actually looked back. He grimaced at the idea of the trial ending up in Yashamaru not having any kind of rule to not get close to them. And knowing the situation, it was probably the only good option he had. He looked at the blond. How strange that the man was going through so many things and yet, he survived. But then, moving away to another country was a radical move… he wouldn't want to imagine how much of hardships he had to go through when he moved on unknown grounds with a kid under his arm. But then, he was having some money.

Having money always was a guarantee you wouldn't end up dead instantly. But then, he decided to not stop on his luck and push it to the end. It's not like if he had anything to take from blond's offerings now.

'Is she still bothering you?'

Minato still wasn't looking at the older man, and when he reached to take the cigarette from his mouth, his hand shook lightly.

'No… not yet. Only my uncle and my boss know I'm here so there shouldn't be a way for her to find out… but even so-' he stopped, a fierce frown suddenly taking over his features as he tossed the half finished cigarette down to the puddle of water. What the hell was he doing? Confession? Sure, it was the E for Everyone's version of the story and only half truths at that, but still, he didn't want that man to know about his past. He didn't want to tell these things and if he had no reasons… Other than those kids inside the building. Other than his son's best friend (in the whole wide world).

'Listen, it's cold and you all are probably hungry. If you want to talk, we can go to my house and do it.' He looked at the building. 'At least it would please Sarutobi-sensei.'

'Do it?' The other man looked at the blond with a little unconscious gaze, obviously not understanding what was said to him. Then he turned around and coughed up with a sour grimace, more angry at himself than anyone. What was he thinking at times like those!... Especially as the blond was offering him dinner again. He had objections and wasn't very sure about it, even if kids once again were looking at him starved, but one glance at Asuma, who was also looking at them now was more convincing than anything else.

He didn't want him to think he has reason to actually grab the phone.

'I guess… that's right.' he muttered finally, not losing the gaze of frowning man from the other side of the glass 'It's not the best weather to talk outside about such things.'

And besides, who knew if someone was not watching them now. He might've been paranoid but then, he might've been not, for exactly the same reasons and without a proof for both. He could as well not get the image of the blonde be attached to him in any way if he was at it.

'But I do it only for kids.'

With those words he entered the room, catching Kankuro in his arms again, along with Gaara who was already reaching out for him, before he even crouched down. It was Temari's time to walk on her legs. But he was calmed by that. She could run fast and was the most aware of them all. He doubted that anything could happen with the blonde around, but then, if the blonde had such past… better safe than sorry.

'You're cold!...' squealed Kankuro, trying to push away from him, even if he didn't let him 'And wet! Dad!'

'Stop complaining about my hugs.' he muttered to him, knowing exactly why he did that. Kankuro, from them all, had the least waterproof clothes and every drop that was on him was soaking his blouse . Gaara stuck to him like he always did, absorbing the water like spoon and not minding it at all. He moved closed, poking the older boy's cheek with his cold nose lightly 'Or should I tell Mr. Uzumaki we won't be going to his place because you want to stay here?'

'We're going to Naruto's?' asked the boy, then he looked at the blonde behind them. Then, without hesitation, he hugged himself to the man closely. Temari looked at him with a frown and then stared at the blond. That sounded about wrong when daddy said so many times they wouldn't go there, but the thing seemed to be pretty strange as daddy was not seeming to be exactly happy or relaxed. She chose not to ask. Gaara stared at the man. Daichi turned to him.

'You heard what I said? We're going to Naruto's.'

'Really?'

'Really.'

'But you said…'

'It doesn't matter now, Gaara. Not at all.'

The redhead kept staring. Only after a moment of reading signals off the daddy's face, his questioning expression finally started melting. When it faded away, Gaara beamed with happiness, making a happy squeal and hugging himself to the wet sweater and skin even tighter.

'Love you, daddy!' he gurgled merrily. Daichi only closed his eyes for a brief second and leaned down to lay his cheek against the dry red hair. Looking almost painful. Then he tossed that expression away and turned to Minato again with a face that showed he was biting through something particularly nasty.

'We're ready to go.'

'Okay…Naru.' The little blond had been glaring steadily at the older redhead as long as he had been in the room. Very much like a cat that had been kicked by said person before and wasn't feeling particularly appreciative of said person's presence, especially since he'd heard his daddy would be talking with him alone. There had been several attempts from him to escape and rescue his dad from whatever the bad man might be doing to him, which probably explained why he was now hanging from one of Asuma's arms as if he were an unused bag.

When he heard the man said that he would be coming home with them he gaped a bit from his precarious position, and when his father reached for him, he didn't make any sort of comment other than wordlessly extend arms towards him. With a sigh and a comment regarding the fact he was getting too heavy, Minato picked his son up, pulling the hood of his orange raincoat and taking his bag with his other hand.

'We are going to my home to talk.' he informed the bearded man, nodding to him as he couldn't exactly say goodbye any other way with his hands full as they were. 'Thank you for taking care of Naruto these days.'

'Anytime.' answered the man, getting up from his leaning stance and wiping his hands against each other, like if anything that he did had made him dust them. He tossed the still untrusting glance toward the other man, but Daichi didn't accept it. More, he didn't even act like if he saw what was the teacher doing. 'Good luck with your conversation, I believe you will need a lot of it. And as the days are becoming colder keep warm, all of you.' And with that kind of warmish smile he usually waved off all his kids and parents, he opened the door and let the families pass through them.

'See you tomorrow.'

Hopefully, he would. In much better organization than today. Daichi didn't answer. The walk wasn't long, but he initially felt the pain of Temari as she tried to skip the largest puddles of water. He didn't have to guess much – at the condition his shoes were in, they got wet all pretty quickly. And at the shop they told him they would last for ages! Then – probably 'ages' didn't exactly mean eight years…

'It's cold.' muttered Kankuro against him as the wind blew, but he didn't have hand to cover him up more as he was carrying other child on it. Gaara just kept hugging him, tossing happy glances at the younger blond from his position, not daring to talk yet. Kids.

'Don't complain.' murmured Daichi, making Kankuro sit a little higher for a moment as he tried to grab him in better angle, but in vain 'We're almost there.'

This time, the boy didn't say anything. Good. The first wave of lukewarm air of the insides of the building were welcomed by all four of them with a silent sigh. Maybe not a palace, but it was all they needed now. Daichi looked at the surroundings now, unsure, but he decided to keep the kids close until they would reach the actual house of Uzumakis. Freedom in that case could've cost him too much to take a risk.

Maybe Minato had poor means to handle his own problems, but at least he knew what to do with minor things like what the immediate situation was.

'Naru, go get some dry shirts for Gaara and Kankuro.' he told his son as soon as he was freed from the orange plastic, and then disappeared himself for a moment, before returning with several towels and handing them to the kid's father. Once his hands were empty, he kind of hugged them to himself in a self-conscious gesture.

'I don't think Naru's clothes would fit Temari, but she can wear one of mine's. I left everything in my room, you can change them there... I have a drier. By the time dinner's done they should be dry.' A pause as he looked even more uncomfortable. 'You should give me yours, too.'

Daichi looked at him with the half of a sneer, almost ready to protest, but he stopped, feeling how uncomfortable the clothes were once he took a step to go to the pointed room. Without a moment of hesitation, he turned a sneer into half of an ironic smile.

'Oh, but I'm afraid that Naruto's clothes wouldn't also fit me.' he said, already undoing the buttons on his jacket and searching for small ones of the official shirt of the company he worked in 'I doubt we would stay that long to let them dry completely, but I could wear a towel or something.'

With that, he moved toward the said room and closed the doors to let his kids dry in peace and not to be asked questions that were uneasy to answer. He unbuttoned the shirt and hanged it on the nearest hanger as he grabbed the towel to dry hair of Kankuro and Gaara. Temari was still fighting with her pony-tails, so they went first.

'One, two, three, polka-dot!' said Gaara happily, touching the spots at his chest and laughed merrily. It was visible he made the kid a lot of happiness. He doubted it could last long in such situation, so he let the comment slide, making his hold only more firm.

'Don't move, Gaara.' he said. Kankuro looked at him in silence.

'Eleven.' he said with the tone of righteousness.

'Twelve.' Daichi corrected him, not stopping his doings 'The last one is hidden behind the nipple.'

'No, it's not.' said the boy, making a whining protest as he started drying his hair. Daichi sighed.

'Yes, it is, right here.' he said, showing the small dot behind the left nipple 'Now let's not talk about stupid things and change clothes normally. Temari, come here…'

The girl came, finally freeing her hair from the tight rubber bands. She, in exchange, liked the rough touch of daddy's hands, so she didn't protest like Kankuro.

Minato's brows rose lightly at the completely unnecessary aggression, but decided not to comment on it. He had left clothes for him after all, and the ones he was wearing were soaked through. Not to mention that, according to what he had heard of him, he couldn't risk getting pneumonia, so at least there were good chances he'd change on that… Tho, to be perfectly honest, he only cared about the kids.

Probably, very likely, all that aggression was fueled by fear and paranoia and seeing doors closing left and right. Or he simply was a bastard. There were people like that in the world. Bastard or not, those kids wouldn't be so wonderful if he hadn't been doing something right. Though whatever it was escaped him, as he couldn't see it between them being abandoned for hours to no end, locked up and forced to starve. He didn't like the idea of the man in his room, but it's not like if he had anything to hide there. He hoped he'd at least understand it was some sort of show of… trust or something, but he didn't have that many expectations on it.

'Naru, come help me.' he called for the little blond, who was slowly creeping down the aisle. With a pout, the blond came down and stared at his father seriously. Minato crouched down to his height.

'Okay foxie.' he said, reaching to stroke the boy's cheek, making him close that eye and finally smile. 'There has been an unexpected increase in the tummy rate of this house. We need a new cooking plan. I'm open to suggestions.'

The blond's answer was immediate and just as predictable.

'Ramen?'

'No instant food, Naruto.' The Sabaku's nutritional values were very likely fucked up as it were.

'Pho?'

'Not enough left and not enough time to make new one.' The kid's eyes closed in that expression that was so animal-like and instantly made him think of foxes, a small, pensive pout on his lips.

'Pasta bake?' Minato frowned thoughtfully at that.

'It'd take too long. I don't think tha-… Sabaku-san would like to wait thirty minutes.' And just thinking about the conversations they could have during it was enough to make him break into gooseflesh. Though very likely he'd just get pissed off and go away without letting the kids eat ten minutes in.

'Rice?' Minato thought about it. The smaller blond, sensing impending success, pressed on. 'With curry!'

Minato mentally went through the contents of the fridge. They did have curry powder… and there were those chicken pieces he was going to use for dinner tomorrow, he'd just sacrifice them today…

'Chicken curry?'

Naruto's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

'Real chicken?' His father rolled his eyes.

'You couldn't even tell it wasn't until I told you.'

'Reeeal chicken?'

Minato sighed.

'Yes Naruto. I assure you it comes from a murdered chicken.' he had the feeling such statements shouldn't be met with squeals, but what could one do? When Daichi finally came out of the room, wearing the clothes he had to roll up as they were at least one size too big for him, the blond was already boiling water and chopping food. He felt uneasy as it seemed they wouldn't be getting leftovers but actually the freshly made dinner and one of good quality, but he didn't have heart to actually say anything. The kids immediately started trailing the blond like lost puppies. Beside Gaara who decided to just go after Naruto to play with him in whatever they did when he was here. For a moment he felt tempted to follow to actually peak at them, but that would surely look strange in everyone else's eyes, so he decided to stay in the chair he chose to sit on (the same he sat at before when he ate the meal there).

It was the first time he had occasion to actually look at what his kids did at the place when he was absent.

'Can I have a fat-cat mug?' asked Kankuro, pointing at the cupboard above himself, then he glanced at Temari 'She wants the girly cup.'

'It's not girly!' said Temari, looking at Kankuro with scandal 'It's p r e t t y.'

'I don't see the difference.'

'And I don't see the difference between you and stupid.'

Kankuro shot the girl an angry look and opened his mouth. Daichi felt it was the right moment to actually come in. This was becoming kind of ugly already.

'Hey!' he shouted in a vaguely low tone, making the kids look at him with startled expressions, like if they forgot he was actually there 'Temari, stop calling your brother stupid. He just told you a compliment. Be nice.'

The girl looked at him with a frown, then at Kankuro who turned his head to the side, avoiding her gaze like if nothing has happened. Compliment? Where? She didn't see any. But that didn't mean she could dwell on the topic now. Daddy said. Daddy knew better.

'Thanks.' she said, receiving a shrug and a faint blush from him and she turned to Minato again 'So the flowery cup for me and the one of Gaara's with heart…'

'Hearts.' said Kankuro, correcting her. She flushed lightly. Right. 'I meant hearts and the one…' she stopped, looking at the cupboard, unsure. She was about to order a cup from there that actually was not signed as daddy never ate with them there. Just a habit of thinking of them as 'four' and not 'three' for most of the time.

'…nothing.' she said, blushing quite hard and finding something interesting in her feet covered in large adultish sweater 'Can I?'

Minato didn't know if it was his mind playing tricks on him, but he could swear he had the world slowest power drill firmly set in the back of his head, agonizingly slowly advancing inch by inch. Or maybe just the weight of the man's stare.

'I'll put your clothes in the drier as soon as I finish this.' he muttered a little under his breath, though he didn't try to repeat what he said. The fact the kids were here was much of a relief to him, though he stiffened a little when the man scolded them.

'…sure you can use yours, no problem.' he said, turning to smile at them gently. "Do you want to start setting the table?'

'Sure-' '-why not.' said both kids almost acting like twins and they immediately started rummaging through the drawers where cutlery lied. A moment later, they were gone from the room. Daichi stared after them in wonder.

'So you make them set the table, huh…' he said more in a thoughtful manner than blaming. No reason for the latter either. It was a good lesson every kid could use after all. He hadn't got his head for this when it came to no food to share anyway. There was a moment where Minato turned, like some sort of animal staring the sky to see the upcoming storm, then shrugged lightly.

'It keeps them from fighting.' reaching on one of the cabinets, he took out a container and a small coffee cup –considering there were only 6 of those against the over-a-dozen mugs in the next one, it was easy to tell these only came out for visits and when they were needed for cooking- and used them to measure several cups worth of the rice, dropping it in water. He was almost done before he stopped, turning around with a slightly worried expression. "Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't ask. Do you eat curry?'

'Yes, I do.' said Daichi smoothly, looking at the blond with uninterested face. When the man turned around, he let himself smile a little bitterly. Of course he did. He also ate leftovers from the work's restaurant if they had any (and they usually didn't), licked plates clean after his kids even if he didn't give them any proper thing to digest and once he even tried to pick up things from trash can and it was only because he felt he would faint dead on his face in the middle of empty street at night where a car could run him over and not even notice.

After that he swore the fragile 'never again' knowing he valued his honor more than insides and knowing very well (and denying it) that if he would start feeling dizzy at the same place and time he would again start going through dirt to find the moldy piece of bread. So yes, he ate curry. Every day and nonstop. Amazing how he learned to lie so smoothly once he started from fear of being pitied at. The first time was the worst. Then it became much simpler with time.

'Why so concerned suddenly?'

At the answer, the blond doubted a moment more, then continued what he was doing. What kind of answer was that? Because he wouldn't want to force him to eat something he didn't want to?

'Politeness.' he answered shortly. Minato finally lowered the heat of the skillet and rummaged through another cabinet, coming up with a bread and started cutting it up. Two pieces he put apart and dipped lightly in the curry. 'Temari, Kankuro!'

Once the kids rushed back in, he offered them the bread pieces.

'Let me know if it needs more salt.'

Which was just an excuse to start giving them something to eat while the rice got done, but he'd feel a little better after it. The kids looked at it hesitantly, then at each other. Kankuro was about to take it, but then he lowered his hand and glanced sideways, almost like if he felt something was ready to jump at him. Then, with one more glance at each other, without another word, the kids ran away again.

'Not hungry that much!' said Temari.

'We still need to set the table!' added the boy. Daichi raised an eyebrow a bit, but didn't seem to be very concerned about this. To tell the truth, he wasn't much.

'And you also spoil them?' he asked in a lazy drawl, like if he was just commenting on the wall's painting color 'I see…'

But he was satisfied with kids' answer. That meant more than enough that they knew how to behave and that his teachings were not in vain after all. Minato didn't answer, abstaining of telling him he didn't see how that qualified anywhere near 'spoiling' and just left the breads on a plate, washing his hands.

'Could you watch that a bit? I'll go put your clothes in the drier. Did you leave anything in the pockets?' he wanted to pick a fight? Minato didn't, so he better sit down to wait.

'Just a wallet and keys to the car.' said man with a shrug. He doubted the blond would be interested in stealing the empty piece of rug and keys to the car that was neither too expensive or didn't have any adds that could make it worthy. He could as well let him touch it. 'Better take them out or you will destroy your machine. I'll watch this.'

With a nod, he took the plate with him and left it with Naruto and Gaara, who predictably finished them off in mere seconds. He found the clothes in the plastic basket he'd left there –the man's clothes were literally leaking- salvaged the contents of them and then opened the mostly unused doors down the aisle, disappearing through the final one, the only one that had a different design than the rest. He returned a few moments later and gave the man the keys and the wallet, then set to strain the rice.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Well, they did seem to like the food.

Once the Sabaku family sat down over the table and was served the food, the silence fell. The rain from the outside could be heard between clinking of the spoons and forks as Kankuro completely forgot his place and ate like if the house was on fire. Temari tried to contain herself a bit as she ate in slower pace, biting through every piece of rice with painful patience that didn't suit the hunger she felt. And Gaara ate like every hungry little kid ate.

Which meant the average tempo of well fed adult. With the sole exception of the fact he broke the pattern of eating again and again, only to check on teddy that was sitting near him. It was a nervous habit he picked up a few days before, actually being an answer to Daichi's overprotectiveness by copying his checking on kids every few minutes he could. Daichi waited.

His empty stomach churned in pain as he ate the bite of something too spicy and too rich in taste agonizingly slow, almost making the torture out of pleasure. Not that he felt really hungry. The knot he had on stomach, undone by previous meal at this house, was now stuck tight and didn't let him enjoy the food. At fifth bite he already felt like if he was full. That was a mirage, he knew, but the body was sending different signals to him and he couldn't disobey it. So he just wasted his time watching the kids and the blondes.

The little kid was actually pretty funny eating up like this, in a fatherly sort of way. There was some lose manner in his moves he couldn't recognize, maybe because his kids never were put loose. He seemed to be mimicking his father on that. And the older blond ate with a little different angle he saw in usual people, but that was probably a cultural thing. He was not from this country after all.

'Can I have seconds?'

He turned around, to see Kankuro sitting behind the empty plate, actually pretty messed up on face and hands. So not all his teachings soaked in like they should've 'Excuse me-'

'Kankuro.' he said in a sharp, warning tone. The boy looked at him with fear, probably not sure how to react. It has been some time since he had been scolded at the table manners 'Don't strain it.' And then, without a word, Daichi exchanged his almost full plate with the kid's empty one. For real, he shouldn't have done that there, but then, he shouldn't have ignored that either. And what mattered to him more was actually his kid being satisfied than the ideas of some blond he was seeing for the last time in his life.

Kankuro looked at him for a moment with insecurity, then he dug in, this time in much slower pace. Daichi looked at that for a moment, then steered his gaze at the wall in front of him and froze in a melancholic pose. He was not intending to make excuses for himself either.

Minato said nothing through the food, other than asking the kids for this or something other, not even daring make conversation with them. He was about to get up to get Kankuro some more when he froze at the older man's reaction, frowning at him and completely oblivious to the fact Naruto was frowning in an almost-exact-like fashion, only kid-version. When the man looked at him, though, he quickly looked away and returned to having a whispered conversation with Gaara.

'There is more than enough for everyone to have seconds.' he said calmly, getting up and taking the man's plate with him. He should know, after all, he left him watching the frigging pot. While at it, he set the coffee machine to start making some new batch. God, he had the feeling he would need it. Daichi scowled when the plate with second portion was made in front of him, knowing very well that now he just had to eat it, because it would look like if he starved the kids for his own pleasure, because for not being hungry he would eat all food or… something. He didn't know. His stomach protested at first, but as he kept on gnawing through rice, the knot has finally gotten lose. And then he forgot about almost everything.

So when Minato decided to serve all of them seconds as kids asked for it, he actually took third plate, not even seeing what he was doing and ate through that also. Kankuro and Temari kept looking at him with a frown, confused by contradictory image of their daddy saying one thing and doing completely opposite, but they decided to shrug it off. It seemed that even supermen had their limits.

After the meal had ended, they were left with a bowl of fruits for a dessert and they took it with a permission from Daichi. The man watched them for a moment fight with oranges and bananas, then decided to leave them be. If he was to die, nobody would peel it off for them. The sooner they would learn such things the better.

After a few moments they were sent off, making him feel a little uneasy as he knew that more serious part of the meeting would come now, though he had no idea what the blonde wanted from him. Sure, he fed them from pity (probably) and took them in after Asuma decided to glare at him, but he couldn't really expect of him to let him give him his kids? Really, not when he had the blond of a relative breathing on his neck.

Daichi knew very well what was about to come now, but yet, he didn't feel ready for that. He looked at the hallway where the kids vanished, running, talking, actually smiling and making comments that could be mistaken by any other childish one, beside one thing. They seemed to be happy. Unconcerned. It felt painful to see it like that when he knew he couldn't let them enjoy it for long.

He looked at the table and at the blond who carried a trial with coffee cups and thanked for it with a quiet murmur. It warmed his hands, but he was hesitant to take a sip at first. He knew very well why was he here – because he couldn't be anywhere else. Because he had nowhere else to go.

Because he knew, that if he could, he would finally say 'bye bye' and never drag his kids to the house where the strange blond man, now the runaway, was trying to live through the day and insisted on helping him like no one else in his life. Maybe besides Karura, but that was beside the point. He was not there to make an impression of good possible lover anyway.

With a painful frown he dipped his mouth in the black coffee, feeling the aroma stroking his nose and he swallowed it down, almost not feeling the taste out of the numbness he felt on his tongue. A little too quick, a little too much and he burned himself. But it was a good feeling compared to what he usually felt there. The numbness was never too good.

Finally, he rose his eyes, looking at the man. A young, handsome parent with a kid. Now he knew why he lived alone. Probably afraid of attachments as he was on a run. Strange that he decided to stop and look at the family like his. His kind, the poverty kind with kids was many out there. It could have been him or the man who lived across the street with two young brothers. But somehow, he was afraid to call it 'luck'. He was having bad luck for his whole life so it would be risky to assume it has suddenly ended there.

He glanced up to the blond again and finally he let go of the cup with a slight clink. There were many questions to be asked, but not many deserved to be told. He decided to go for the most crucial ones. The wrong answer would dismiss all of the rest and close the matter.

'Have you ever murdered anyone?'


	14. 14: Black coffee

'Have you ever murdered anyone?'

Feeling a bit better about the fact everyone was fed and out of immediate hearing range – if Minato could trust his son not to try to eavesdrop, reason why he changed seats so he could have an eye on the hallway- he was left in the terrifying presence of the man that he would have been perfectly happy to avoid for the rest of his days. He let the silence sit, not really knowing what to say and waiting for his own coffee to get a more bearable temperature when the older male spoke. The cup nearly fell from his suddenly numb hands.

'W-what…?' What kind of question was that? …had he done it? Was he hinting at something? Unconsciously, he pulled away in fright.

'Have you?' repeated the man with the same steady voice. After a moment of silence, he turned his gaze away, taking another sip of black coffee. 'I didn't. Because as you might or might not know, the murder is actually a pretty destructive thing. Destroys from both sides like the infamous two sided blade.'

He paused to take a look at the light, cozy room, made with the hand that was a little messy and a little forgetful, that was visible. In the papers that lied without any particular order for example. Any normal human wouldn't notice, but he worked with columns and books for too long to actually not see such things simple from instinct. Not very segregated.

'Murder is messy.' he started again, continuing his travel through the walls of the room, but not turning too much to the sides 'Sometimes not very much, it takes only a pill to kill. Sometimes you have to clean the brain from the floor, walls and so on. Sometimes the mess is not even for you to clean. Especially as someone is pushed from the big height. Tenth floor for example. Have you ever thought about falling from that floor? Some say that there are fortunate examples of people who survived that. But when I hear about it, I only can think about laying on earth and wondering if there's any part of my skeleton that's not broken and actually praying for ability to walk in the future life that was spared for me. I wouldn't call it fortunate at all.'

He took another sip, slowly tasting the faint bitterness and he finally turned back his gaze to the blond, looking him in the eye. He leaned forward on the table.

'But can you imagine the whole process? The murder, the cleaning of evidences, the hiding, and thinking about possibilities or lack of them to be discovered or not… that's a risk only someone very desperate and lost can take. Someone who has no other ways to get out or doesn't see any even if they're there.' He stopped to look at the insides of the cup. It was half empty now, his sips weren't very small. He blinked, once, twice, watching the black liquid swirl, almost like if he found some new physical theory there. Then he got up his indifferent face and hardened stare at the man in front of him. 'And, just to let you know, I happen to be actually in pretty desperate state.'

He stopped, watching the blond. He had some other things to say, but he didn't want to unless he had to. Possibly, this was enough.

'Of course I've never done something like that!' The blond said, turning slightly away from the man with a somewhat hurt look. '…I hate hurting people.' Not that he didn't catch what the other was hinting at, if one could hint at the bolded out, thick-fonted subtitles that all but appeared at every word the other said. 'Why are you threatening us? We didn't do anything to you.'

'Maybe for that you wouldn't think of doing anything to me or my children. But I never said it's all about you.' Daichi hesitated for a moment, then moved away from a thought. No. That would be too much to say. He rose his head, observing the blond, with a slightly tilted head. Now when he knew much more than before, he saw some things in a bit different light. Which didn't mean the good light. 'For a man who hates hurting people you don't seem to be very concerned about how many you hurt by running away from your country.' he muttered, making the cup stand on the table and moved it, so he could hear the coffee in it splash lightly 'Such things never are painless. They leave trails of burned houses and memories. For the person caring for my children that seems to be too suspicious.'

That got a somewhat bitter smile out of the blond, who changed the way he was holding the cup from using the handle to surrounding it with his hands.

'I told you, I didn't have any friends left by the time I left.'

'That's suspicious also. Why didn't you have friends there? Were you an outsider?' asked Daichi again in the same pose 'You see, outsiders are strange… they might be a good people but you may never know what would they finally do. I'd rather get my kids taken away than handle them to someone who would take care of them in… his own way.'

Minato looked at the man, his eyes showing that odd sad and accusing look from before.

'I don't make friends easily. I never have.' He turned the cup on his hands again.

'Is this why you take 'sad pills'?' The cup in other man's hands stopped twirling, standing flat on the table as Daichi let go of it, leaning to the side, watching the blond. 'Now when I think of it, you do seem to me to be… fragile.'

He searched for other words, sure, but it was the best he found. Really. At least it was better than 'delicate', 'weak' and 'womanly'. He sat in silence, not taking his eyes from the other man. No, a depressed men always got problems and cared more for themselves than anything else when it hit them. He couldn't risk leaving kids with a fragile flower instead of a pit-bull. He couldn't.

Minato stopped. His whole body tensed as he stared at the older man with a supremely surprised expression. That lasted the better part of five seconds…. After which he relaxed. Smiled, even.

'Oh.' he said. Daichi looked back, rising slowly an eyebrow.

'Oh'? That was the answer for the question? He hadn't expected that. So he sat and waited for continuation of the idea.

'I guess I would seem fragile, compared to you.' Minato finally continued, after a perfectly calmed sip of his own cup. There was nothing in the tone that could indicate if it should be taken as an insult or a compliment. 'So, this is why you have acted like this as of late? I did wonder, why you had no problem letting me take care of Gaara for so long without caring and all of the sudden you are down my neck as I you'd found me auctioning him off on e bay-' Another sip.

The other man frowned to the point uglifying his looks. What the hell. Was the man playing dumb with him? And if he really didn't know… he wouldn't want to bring it out on the daylight as it was a moving sand of a topic, not a steady ground where he could move through words. Only his accusations. It could be viewed as his own paranoia, even if it wasn't. He met too many strange people to not be suspicious. He let go of the cup and leaned back on the chair.

'I don't think it's a well put question.' he said, crossing his arms 'I'd rather say it's me who should be asking why the hell did you act like a childish stalker. Adults don't go to dangerous districts only to throw envelopes to people whom they barely know.' he stopped, looking at the table for a moment, then tightened his lips, relocking his jaw. 'Were you high then too?'

'On imipramine?' A smile twitched on the blond's lips again, 'Hardly. You don't get 'high' on antidepressants, Sabaku-san. Much less on the ones I take.'

'Really? And what about pills for flu? I know nothing about drugs but seeing the amount of it you carry somewhere in this house is more than showing that something is not right with you.' With those words the man leaned on the table, still with crossed arms, still tightening the muscles in his jaw like if he was getting ready to break nuts with them. 'Why the hell did Naruto threw whole pack of flu pills when you were neither sick or in need? Gaara brought six empty sachets home.'

That caused Minato to stop smiling and straightened.

…flu pills. The cold pills? The sachets- His head turned with a frown in the bathroom's direction, his body almost unnaturally still. Naruto gave Gaara… Naruto had reached the medicine cabinet? He could have sworn it was open the other day, but he'd just thought it was his own carelessness, he hadn't been thinking straight back then and Naruto…

'One moment, please.' he said, getting up from the table without even stopping to check if the older man was okay with his request or not, simply disappearing down the aisle and into the bathroom. Once alone he closed the door, taking deep breath and reaching for the medicine cabinet opened it, eyes going for the box of flu pills. As soon a she grabbed it he knew it was empty by weight alone. A sudden sort of awful feeling of cold seeping into him, like if something had broken and bits of shrapnel had gotten stuck in parts of his body and ((The pills The pills All of them gone)) he would have stayed there if it hadn't been for a particularly loud set of squeals from his bedroom's direction. The kids were still there. And if it were up for his bastard of a father, they wouldn't be. Taking the package, he went back to the table, leaving it in front of the man. 'These, you mean?'

Daichi tossed a glance at the box, unhappy about the sudden break in discussion. He couldn't tell if the man hadn't meddled with it once he got into the bathroom or if the pills that were hidden there were actually the pills that the box showed it had. His knowledge of medicine and drugs was limited to syrups for coughing and adverts made on TV, unless some merciful doctor decided to actually tell him what he was applying to his own kids when they were sick.

'Yes, this.' he muttered vigilantly, not really happy about the fact he couldn't show how suspicious the box was when it looked so innocent 'At least from what I remember.'

Minato stared at him, hands going back to his nearly empty cup of coffee.

'…it's cough medicine.' he said, as if he were explaining something very obvious to someone not especially bright.

'That doesn't explain why did your kid act like that.'

'You could have asked instead of accusing me. It's not a secret, and neither is the fact that I take antidepressants.' Minato reached for a spoon and used it to stir his coffee for a moment before leaving it on the table again. 'When I was little there weren't soft capsules like this, they came in cough syrup, and I really liked the flavor.' the blond's father said, his voice low. Probably so his son wouldn't hear it.

'Once, when I was five, I took too much and had to have my stomach pumped. I was lucky that's all that happened, but I never really forgot how awful it felt, and that I could have died from that…' the man trailed off for a second or two. 'I've always been scared of something like that happening to Naruto. I told him about it and, well… he takes those things seriously. I haven't been feeling well since Monday so he must have thought I intended to have some.'

'That…' said Daichi, looking at him, not losing his wary expression for once '…makes no sense. Why should your kid think you would overdose coughing pills if that happened with syrup?'

Minato sighed, leaning on the table and cupping his chin on a hand tiredly.

'Because what's inside the pills is the same that was inside of the cough syrup.'

There was no attempt to add a 'genius' and nothing indicated it was meant to be added... and yet, the idea of it seemed to be left hanging around in the room.

'You want to tell me that your kid thinks you have brain of five year old who would overdose coughing pills because they have syrup in them suddenly like that?' said Daichi, not liking the 'Duh' atmosphere around him. To Minato it seemed to be obvious, to him like if he was trying to make an idiot out of him. This simply didn't connect. What kind of explanation was that supposed to be? Someone was retarded here and it was not him.

'My son thinks a scratch and pretty much anything that needs medicine and hospitalization can kill me, Sabaku-san.' the blond said coldly, room temperature seeming to drop about twenty degrees Celsius all of the sudden. 'That's how my wife died, and it affected him. Considering I'm all the family he has left, I'd have expected you to understand something like that.'

'No, I don't understand something like that.' said Daichi, adding to the freezing temperature, not minding it at all as he was ready for it 'You want to tell me he thinks you would take them like you did when you were five years old? Why would a kid think that? If you told it to him this means you understand the danger it brings.'

'Naruto knows I take antidepressants, and that I should mix them with other medicine or alcohol.' the blond didn't seem to react one way or another to what the other man said. 'To him, that it happened already only means it's more possible it could happen again, even if I only had one pill.'

'That still doesn't explain the hysteric reaction he got about this.' muttered Daichi, not leaving his eyes from the man with a close observance. Dammit, he seemed to be either completely sure of what was he saying or oblivious of the fact he was bending the reality. Was it how he saw the life around him? 'When you were five years old he wasn't there. Which only means you had to have the repercussion of that accident, because this doesn't seem right to me that the kid is not calm enough to let them be.' He looked at his cup of coffee. It was lukewarm now, but still available to drink. He didn't touch it though.

'Hysterics? The medicine cabinet in general makes Naruto go hysterics, Sabaku-san.' Minato finished his cup and left it on the table, still holding back the older man's gaze. 'I explained to him there times Gaara was all right when he came to the hospital, but he didn't believe it until he saw him himself. I might as well ask why a kid as gentle as Gaara tried to break Naruto's nose over a simple toy. Or why he doesn't let anyone touch it or get near to it or even wash it. Or why he has those bags in his eyes and only seems to want to sleep when some is nearby to watch him.' Another pause. 'Or why two times out of three he wakes up screaming.'

Daichi looked at the man in silence, slowly musing about what was said to him. Why Naruto was going hysterics when he saw medicine cabinet?... He was about to ask that when the blond has drowned him with questions, every one of them attached to the redhead son of his. He squinted his eyes in anger. The man didn't have rights to preach around his problems more than it was needed. He didn't like where it was heading.

'Gaara is the nervous child.' he said, biting the words at the ends through lips locked tight 'As the youngest of all he lost his mother in earliest years and because of that he lives through some fear or lack, maybe just hysteria. It will be gone once he would grow up a little and understand some things.'

It was the explanation he believed was right because he made himself believe it was right, trying to convince himself for so many times it was like that. Actually, he had very faint idea what was wrong until recently he discovered why he liked the plushie so much. Before he thought it was a simple childish thing, to get attached to things you had. It went like that with Temari, who abandoned her fan already, and with Kankuro, who still kept on hanging on his puppets, though more of entertainment than need of having something close (at least it seemed to be like this since he didn't sleep with them anymore and didn't scream bloody murder when they, rarely but still, broke).

When the photo of Karura came out of it, some things suddenly got much more understandable, as his dislike toward washing machine and fighting spirit when it came to trying to get it wet in any way. He didn't think that the kid still kept it, Temari and Kankuro had already lost their own now. And as for the nightmares… ('Don't leave me alone!...') It was hard to listen to such nonsense, but he couldn't help not being there when he had to be away. He didn't think it had anything to do with Karura's death, the kid was pretty young when she died. But then he kept on calling for his mommy and trying to make her appear in his life from time to time with 'Mommy said', like if he had contact with her. He knew he had to wait. It would go away one day. It would go away.

He blinked, getting back to the indifferent expression.

'Gaara just doesn't sleep much because he keeps on having nightmares. If you know that you probably know why. There's nothing I can do to assure him I will always be there when I know I won't.' he muttered 'But I think that more interesting is the fact why is your kid so afraid of medicine cabinet. It shouldn't be like that with little kids.'

Minato made that face again, that sort of wince as if he'd tasted something bitter.

'Stop attacking me. I'm trying to help you, and so far I seem to be the only person doing so, so please stop treating me as if I were the worst enemy you have, I haven't done anything to deserve it.' And the man fucking knew that. He took good care of his kids and did his best to keep Gaara's teacher from very likely tossing the man on jail for more than just a couple of nights just because of the things he was doing to his kids. 'So can we please do this without you trying to pin me down like a dead insect?' he didn't really look angry or cold anymore. Just tired and slightly sad.

Daichi blinked, then relaxed his pose a bit, reaching for the cup of coffee. It tasted a little more bitter than before.

'Sorry.' he muttered between the two gulps, looking to the side and avoiding to look at the blond. Maybe he really was getting far ahead of himself. But what was he supposed to think? He felt like if he was running in circles 'I just am pretty pressured lately, it strains my nerves.'

The blond nodded.

'I understand.' and the worst part was that he wished he didn't, but unfortunately, he did. That's what kept him what felt like doing the right thing yet knew wouldn't be. 'Let me get you more coffee and we can try this again.' It took him less than five minutes to be back with the newly steaming cups, but even so it took him longer to finally start talking. '…Kushina died because the doctor that treated her misdiagnosed what she had.'

The sentence came out so fast and suddenly it seemed to have been ripped out of his chest rather than having been willingly constructed. The sentences that came after it seemed to follow suit.

'Less than a week after Naruto was born, we went back home. Kushina always hated hospitals so she was happy to be home, and I guess that's why she was stupid enough to take so long-' he stopped, at that, blinking down at the cow-patched mug he was holding as if he didn't know where it had come from, and picked the spoon to start stirring at it again. "Something inside her tore and she bled inside out.' Dropping the spoon, he took a long gulp of the coffee, as if he wanted to cleanse his mouth. It was probably still too hot, but he didn't seem to notice.

'…that happened when Naruto was just a baby. The things in his face.' he made a vague gesture on his own cheek 'When he was less than two- do you know what's it like to hold down a toddler than doesn't know what's happening and has his face torn through?' _It's worse when you yourself don't know what's going on_, his mind added bitterly, yet delightedly somehow. 'Then came the trial, and I was taken to an hospital to have blood tests and who knows what else. Naruto hates hospitals and anything related to medicine. To him, if someone is bad enough to need medication, it means they could die.'

Daichi looked at the man in silence, drinking another cup of coffee he was given. Through the second one he felt strangely relieved, though not much awakened. More, with every minute his muscles were giving up under the pressure of warmth in the room and on the tongue, so his strained pose slowly melted against the table on which he leaned on only to have something to hold onto and not to hover above the blonde. So that's where Naruto's mother went.

She bled out herself, making a one week mommy for the little kid. The thing sounded harsh. He also lost his wife due the unsupervised circumstances, but at least he – both of them – knew what hit them. He took another sip.

'I'm pretty sure it was not an enjoyable experience. This, I mean…' he said, showing at his cheeks. Then he stopped, getting back to drinking 'I never saw such wounds though… what made them?'

'Appendicitis. Can you believe it.' the blond's lips trembled a little, like if he wanted to burst out laughing or start crying and didn't know which one seemed more appealing. 'Something that stupid?' he bit his lower lip in a way that seemed as thoughtless as painful. Daichi stopped with the cup near his mouth, looking at the man with more attentive gaze, but then the light line between his eyes smoothened and he continued with sipping the liquid from the cup.

'Death is never stupid.' he said finally, letting the glass touch the surface of the table. It made a sound too loud for his ideas, so he stopped for a moment and puzzled them into one whole structure again 'It's always painful, tragic and comes too soon.'

He closed his mouth loosely, still tasting the coffee. He remembered the smell of death, the cold, frozen body with blood that didn't circle in veins, hair that didn't grow and skin that didn't fight with bacteria. The slight smell of odor that was the same everywhere, no matter who died and how was perfumed. The smell that changed into smell so strong and so hideous you couldn't get closer after a few days, even if you wanted to. He blinked, gazing at Minato. He was never good at it. Never a coddling, making someone happier, better, lighter. The good old pat on the shoulder felt always too intrusive and he abstained from touching people unless it were his own kids, the flesh of his flesh and blood of his blood. So words were all comfort he could and he wanted to provide.

'But no matter what happens, we have to continue breathing. I'm sure she is happy seeing where you are.' Too bad he couldn't say that about himself. But that was beyond the topic. Minato nodded, but the way he did it didn't indicate agreement as much as blindly saying yes so long as it kept them away from the current topic of discussion.

'As for the antidepressants.' he said again in that slightly surprised tone. Another topic he didn't want to discuss, but by far better than the one currently being examined, because the (Epoch of Decline) topic was still too bad, too recent, even after almost five years. 'I have low chronic depression. If I didn't take the imipramine I'd still be me, just in a depressive lump, and I can't afford that while taking care of Naruto. I never hurt myself and the last time I hurt someone else was in middle school.'

Another lie, but who was keeping count of them anymore?

'I was good enough for a psychiatric desk to say I was a fit father and I had to take a standard psychological test to get my job at university. I passed without problems.' he took a sip. 'I don't know how much a comfort that would be, but you can Google what I have and what I'm taking. I'll bring my laptop.'

Daichi still kept observing the blond above the steaming cup, but didn't protest against that. True, the last time he had seen a computer was in school, which meant a big machine that contained a few adds to work on, but he doubted laptops had any differences. At least they didn't seem to have as he saw from advertisements. Once the blond walked away, he kept on sucking on the brim of the cup, not really tasting the liquid. Depression. A father allowed to be a father. That didn't sound too good but also didn't sound that bad. Yet. It was probably better than father with high nerves rate. He chuckled lightly to himself. Gods, was he suicidal? He felt like kamikaze lately, no matter what kind of choice he made…

'Daddy.'

He looked down. Green eyes stared at him with a plea, the hands already up and waiting for him to take him. The other time he would protest, but now he didn't really had strength to.

'Gaara not now, I have an important talk.' he muttered, bending down to hug him, which resulted in kid trapping him tightly in a lock and making him either fall down from the stool or pick him up. He chose latter 'What's happened?'

'We're playing hide and seek.' said the redhead lightly, then cuddled up close in a sticky pancakey-hug he always did 'Can you hide me?'

'Not really.' he muttered, glancing at the doors where the blond left 'Go an search for some closet or box. I don't know what would be good to hide well enough.'

The silence fell as green eyes stared at him with honest curiosity, wondering if he was lying or telling the truth. He had no reason to lie. He didn't know this place too well.

'Okay.' finally said Gaara shrugging lightly and ungluing from him a bit, only to stop in the middle of the jump and stare at the cup in front of both of them. Again, with curiosity. 'What are you drinkin?'

'Coffee. Not for kids.' he said back, already bending to help the kid get off his knees. Gaara, like if he only waited for that, had clenched around him like a drowning rat being put into the sea water 'Gaara!...'

'Can I have some?' was asked like if he didn't hear him saying anything. Daichi grimaced a little. Kids. 'And if I will you go and play with Naruto without bothering us? We have important things to talk about.'

'I will.' Daichi sighed through his nose. It seemed there was no other way. The liquid in the cup was bitter though and he knew Gaara would not be happy about what he just tasted, but it seemed to be the same with every kid he met – they wanted it despite anything, dealing with consequences only when that happened.

'Here.' he said, giving the still warm coffee to the redhead's hands 'Don't choke, it's still warm.' The kid nodded and quietly took the cup, dipping the mouth in the black water and taking one small sip. And much to Daichi's surprise, second. And then, third. And fourth. He was in the middle of fifth when he forced the cup away from him, seeing that Gaara actually downed it like if it was milk when it actually didn't have a drop of white substance. He looked at the kid in horror where no trait of rejection toward bitter taste lied. This will be a long sleepless night…

'Yummy.' said Gaara, then he simply hopped down from his knees, running away from the room. Yet another taste he liked about this house. Daichi stared after him. Then he shook his head, getting back to the table. The cup that was standing on it, was much lighter than before. He wondered what took the blond so long to actually miss the theatre. But maybe that was better. Any kind of coffee would simply kill the sleeping in that kid and he didn't want to see any other 'nice' moves from the blond toward Gaara now. Even if that would be coffee flavored candies or cookies.

'Sorry.' Minato muttered when he finally came back with the laptop, carrying a bottle of pills with him. 'Ran out of batteries and had to find the plug…' and finding it had been even harder as it was in the closer with the boxes and a little four-pigtailed girl that kept gesturing for him to hurry and close the door before she was found. He left the pills in front of the older man, showing a pretty standard pharmacy prescription bottle –with child-proof top- where it read in Courier font 'Imipramine- Uzumaki N.', followed by a couple serial numbers. 'I'll do the dishes in the meantime, take your time.'

The saffron haired man nodded, taking the bottle from him and turning it in his hand. That really seemed to be a normal bottle with believable medicines. After some searching, he had more fuller image. Imipramine was an antipsychotic drug, but it also was the most standard version of depression drugs. And it seemed to be just that as he was holding the bottle in his hands. Minato was taking the smallest concentration measurement from the standards he saw over the Internet.

What interested him more, though were the symptoms that made on take those meds. There were many, as depressed mood that lasted for more than two years (did he really took care of a kid through such a long time without help?) feelings of hopelessness (ha, he knew that one a little too well), poor concentration or difficulty at making decisions (that he didn't like well, as he'd rather know if the man wouldn't suddenly drop a glass on the one of his kids), low self-esteem and energy that could also lead to fatigue (had he really had a reason to have low self-esteem?) poor sleep and poor appetite or overeating (that was probably cured now as the blond didn't seem to be neither overweight or skinny).

Pretty big list of reasons to actually go and take some meds. Interesting, which ones of those could the blond have?... He got up from the table, tempted for a moment to check the e-mail, but decided against it. He was not disturbing anyone's privacy, be it real post or not. Unless he had to, that was it. Rolling up the sleeves of his pants that managed to roll down by now he stepped into the kitchen where the clinking of the plates could be heard and left the bottle of pills over the table with loud clack.

'That's pretty messed up.' he said out loud. Because really, it was.

'It was worse before.' The blond commented as he continued running the already washed up plates through the cleaning water. 'I thought it was something I was doing wrong.' Like, let's say… everything.

'It's hard not to when you feel like if the world around you was about to collapse and you don't have the energy to push it up in order.' said the other man, quoting one of the more poetic words from the forum for people who recommended imipramine as a good medicine to get a normal life 'But now you made a break out of the bad luck and ended up here, helping people in need. Don't you know that sitting around the sad ones your mood drops quickly?' Scatting tongue, rude tone, no glimmer of mercy. It was probably the worst way to speak to the host that made you feel so good, but he was not going to dance around the topic till the midnight. He hadn't got glass slippers to hold onto when the time would be up anyway.

'Being alone is actually one of the key factors leading to depression.' the younger man replied smoothly, leaving the last plate on the rack to dry on its own. Hint hint, nudge nudge. Look in the mirror a little, bad man, let's see what you have to say for yourself. 'I told you… I know what you are going through. Only I had my uncle helping me with Naruto. You said you don't have any family. And I don't think anyone else is helping.' he reached for a towel to dry his hands. 'And those kids love you.' For some reason, the way he said it indicated that was the biggest reason he had to do anything he was doing.

'Of course they love me, they don't have anyone else on this world.' said Daichi, wincing at his own words. It came out so poorly and so truthfully at the same time it was strange it didn't make his tongue bleed. Truth, what a harsh word… it seemed to be main and only reason they looked up to him with such devotion. He knew very well that if there was anyone else that would love them up more, have more time for them and fed them, the admiration would simply jump to that person. And to tell the truth, he was also a little afraid of it too. What would happen if one day he would come somewhere, be it this place, blond or any nanny and they would tell him 'we don't love you anymore, we stay here'?...

He pushed those thoughts aside. It was not something he wanted to talk about, let alone think.

'You don't really know what are you getting into.' he started, then closed his mouth, unsure. Was he supposed to make him feel fear? Terrify him a bit? Or maybe make him lose the sympathy for all of them? It was strange he didn't manage on that already. 'What do you want from us after all? Nothing in this world comes for free and I don't believe in fairy tale of 'the rich helping the poor because he was poor too'. And when it comes to this… I might be alone but I manage quite well on my own.'

A dry chuckle escaped the younger man.

'Having no one else doesn't automatically make you the best option. If you weren't doing something right, your kids wouldn't want to be with you or make such efforts to imitate you and listen to you. And probably.' the blond said agreeably 'They go to school, they look better fed than you do and they are wonderful kids. But it will snow in two days. Then what?'

He wasn't deliberately trying to be cruel, and the tone in which he said these things showed that, but it did nothing to make the words any more bearable or any less truthful.

'I'm not sure what would happen to you exactly, but unless they have someone else, they will be taken care of by the state.' And that meant orphanage. 'And you'll only see them if the court allows you to, for a determinate amount of time and more than likely under supervision.'

'I doubt that.' said Daichi out loud, not even seeing he used his voice to say that. He stared at his cup again, moving it slowly without any special aim. He did. Because once they would start doing anything, when the law will make a move, Yashamaru would crawl out from his hiding, wherever he was now and would simply step into the place he would pushed out from. And two days? That seemed like a distant future. He could always run. He didn't know where, he didn't know how far. He had a place to stay here as he managed to pay for the place for at least a year forward, not really thinking about making savings, he could also sign them out from kindergarten. But knowing how nosy Sarutobi could be, he doubted it could help. He leaned forward, messing up his hair again. He didn't want to leave his kids alone now. At all. At least in school they were watched nonstop. Who could provide that the blonde would be looking over them like he should. Kids of someone else were never kids of your own after all. Again. The future was pitch black.

'What should I do…' he muttered to himself in a low, almost inaudible tone 'I have no idea what should I do…' He heard the laughter of Kankuro as he was running around in another room and only the word 'river' came to his mind, contradicting with everything he felt – warmth, dryness, safety. This or… but… '…I don't know.' he muttered finally. He didn't know which choice was right or wrong anymore. He felt like a little kid with no sense of reality in the end. There was silence from the other participant of the conversation as the drain gurgled, slightly stuffed with the leftovers.

'…I could loan you money.' The blond said, his voice soft, as if he didn't want the kids to accidentally overhear. 'I can spare some of it right now, and there would be no hurry to return it. Or, you know, need to give me back with increases or anything.'

The rational part of his mind was telling him that loaning money wasn't just bad, but a terrible idea. Too suspicious, too dangerous, and what if he kept asking for more? What if this man turned out to be like her and did something…

'…and what? Let me buy a better coats for kids so they wouldn't drench in the snow as Sarutobi would be making faces at it?' said the man with annoyance in his voice, not rising up his head, still staring at the table 'I bet he will call the services simply out of jealousy. That won't make me work less, I don't work for money now.'

No, not for money. Money wouldn't be given to him until the company would stop having the 'crisis' it was going through no matter what he did. Now he was only working for trust and authority. Every hour more for every hour of lateness and every couple of them for every phone talk he was caught with. He was not elastic, not young, not employable. He didn't have anything else to offer.

'I don't even have time to go and spend money if I had them. So don't try to do that, it's offensive.'

'I meant for a sitter.' the blond replied, obviously feeling hurt by the last comment. 'If you have that many problems with me, so for you to at least get someone.'

'I said I don't want them!' This time the other man rose his head, looking at the blond with offended face, not even noticing he spilled the coffee as he banged on the table with fisted palm. What did he think he was doing? He managed quite well without money, he did! He didn't need anyone's pity! And besides… he didn't have time to even check people he would have to interrogate for 'Nanning' or however it was spelled. He looked at the table and lowered his head a little, feeling ashamed for such explosion. The fisted hand unclenched. 'I'm not going to give my kids to strangers. That wouldn't end well.'

This time the blond jerked back at the bang, his hip hitting the counter, causing him to jerk around to stare at it as if he hadn't expected it to be there. He rubbed at his arm and slowly went back to staring at the older man, his body tense. This time he didn't say anything, just stared at him like a bunny that thinks has spotted danger and is about to flee from whatever might be the cause.

Daichi froze in silence, then, after hearing no valid response, he glanced up, noticing the scared – almost panicked expression on the blond's face. Oh, damn it…

'I'm sorry.' he muttered with barely recognizable words, blushing a little. He shouldn't have reacted that way 'As I said. Nerves.'

After a moment of hesitance, the blond seemed to make himself relax a little, though he kept his arms wrapped around himself in that faintly protective gesture.

'I'm sorry.' he finally mumbled. 'I don't know what else to do.'

_I also don't know._ Those were the words Daichi wanted to say in response, but he didn't quite manage to. First, because it seemed to be edgy and getting that out of his throat just hurt his insides and second, because the door to the kitchen opened and the little redhead entered the place again, along with his brother whom he led by hand, interrupting the line of thought of his.

'Here' said Gaara, going near the table and pointing at the white cup that stood near his elbow 'This.' The brunet looked at it for a moment with hesitating expression, then at both of the men. Then he broke through whatever what stopping him and spoke out loud.

'Can I have some too?' when Daichi didn't answer, stunned by what was happening, he turned to the blond. 'Pleeeaaase?'

Minato stared as well.

'Coffee?' he blinked at the kids, the protective stance relaxing. 'But… that's bitter.' His lips twitched into a warm slide. 'And it will keep you from sleeping.'

'It's yummy.' said Gaara with such certainty that Kankuro immediately lost the frown of doubt that started forming on his face. He looked at his dad, but as Daichi still stared at them, unresponsive, he turned to the blond with determination. 'I'm not sleepy anyway.' he said 'And only one sip… okay? Only one.'

'Me too.' said Gaara like if adding himself to the plea was the most natural thing on the world 'Only one.'

The blond stared at the kid's father, waiting for some response, but the man seemed to be still caught in whatever was going through his mind. He turned to the kids again with the same smile.

'You have enough problems sleeping, Gaara, we don't want you to miss any more… How about some milk with chocolate?' he patted their heads, his body suddenly tensing again as he turned to give the older redhead a worried look. 'I mean… is there time for it…?'

'Why there wouldn't be time for this?' asked Kankuro with closed eyes and light frown. Gaara looked back at the saffron haired man also, waiting for the response. It seemed all depended on what would daddy think. Without a second thought he let go of Kankuro and ran back to him, immediately catching on the chair and getting on his knees with moves that would make one doubt about him being still a little child. At least it made Daichi doubt. Why did he always act like if he couldn't climb anywhere, asking to be lifted then?... More, when did he learn this? One more surprise of not being home all the time…

'There.' said Gaara, sitting on his knees comfortably 'Now there's time for paint and chocolate.'

'It's not paint.' Daichi said unconsciously, reaching for him to get him off as he saw where it was going. 'Gaara, we're talking-'

'Dad!' he looked down at the other face that suddenly showed near him with the betrayal written on his face. 'If he can I want too!' said Kankuro with determination that didn't suit his usual behavior. It probably had something to do with the lack of Temari near him 'Please?...'

'Kankuro, we're having a very important talk.' he said with a pressure, but that didn't seem to make Kankuro any less determined 'If you won't go out now there will be no milk and chocolate.'

'So he can stay and I can't? He is younger than me, I understand more of adult talk!' said the brunet with an unhappy tone 'And I don't have to have milk and chocolate now…'

'That means Gaara too.' The redhead turned to Daichi, staring at him with complete calmness in green eyes.

'Then tomorrow.' he said with the tone that pointed at the promise that was made by him. Daichi felt his nerves shattering.

'Gaara.' he said patiently, looking at the kid. 'There will be no tomorrow.'

'Then day after tomorrow.' said Gaara innocently, turning to look at the blond 'For coffee and milk and chocolate and red jam and…'

'No.' he broke in into the outrageous counting that started spilling from the smallest kid's mouth 'No day after tomorrow, nor week, month, year or ever. I think we talked about this.'

'But we're here?' said Kankuro with unsure tone, looking at the blond 'Does that mean they're going to jail?' The redhead frowned. What?... But they were there, right?... Didn't that mean that everything wouldn't go back to normal?... But… his face saddened a little. Then a little more.

'I dun wanna.' He muttered quietly, looking at the floor and hugging to the plush. Daichi sighed.

'You don't want what.' he asked more out of a habit than of curiosity as he held the kid to get him off his knees.

'I dun wanna go home.' answered Gaara, frowning in the determined glare as he hugged the teddy even tighter to himself 'I wanna stay here.'

'Then I will go home without you.' Gaara didn't answer. Daichi rose an eyebrow. That lack of response was not something he expected here. Gaara always clung to him, not wanting to be left alone. That… wasn't normal.

'I said I will go home without you.' he said louder, wanting to be sure that the kid heard it as he made him stand on the floor. The redhead looked at him with a frown and stood hunched like if he was waiting for the stones to fall on him, or maybe the man hitting him.

'Fine.' he said finally, not moving. Daichi frowned, not understanding.

'You want to stay here?'

'Yes.' said Gaara, then walked up to Minato, catching him on the material of his pants. Kankuro looked at him, then he stepped behind the chair Daichi was sitting. He didn't want to have anything to do with such wishes. Daichi stared at the kid, then he finally rose up from the chair, crossing his hands and turning his gaze into glare. He didn't like that. That challenging glare the redhead was giving him. Even now.

'Then I will go.' he said in a steely tone 'And I won't be back.'

The redhead looked back at him, not wavering under the gaze he sent him. And then – unbelievable – he shrugged. Just like that.

'Fine.' he said.

Daichi scowled. Now that was too much for him. Without a second thought he went out of the kitchen in furious stepping, Kankuro following after him in panic. Gaara didn't budge, glaring darkly at the floor. A moment passed. Then two. The clock ticked. Then green eyes slowly rose from the floor, looking at Minato in silence.

'Sorry.' he said quietly. And then, in a mere seconds, his face scrunched and grimaced, as he let out a whimper and broke into loud wailing. 'Daddyyy!'

Minato was feeling rather uncomfortable regarding the whole situation, and the kids weren't helped much the already tense nerves of his father. Gaara was making it especially hard, and he knew what he said must have hurt his father… Yet he couldn't help relaxing a little when the older man repeated the threat of leaving.

It was obvious he wouldn't leave right there, at least not still clad in his clothes and especially not without Temari. Or get too far without the car keys. Still, the way he said it, more than anything else… it was kind of funny. It was obvious he was threatening the kid so he'd get the expected reaction- Gaara to wail and cling to him. He was as surprised as the boy's father was when the youngest Sabaku held his ground. Maybe he was already getting to that age… Or maybe his son was rubbing off on him already, he'd seen the easy way Gaara had climbed into his father's lap, and save for a little bit of underlying clumsiness, the actions were exactly the same as Naruto when he felt he was paying too much attention to kids other than him.

He waited until the older man left, before quietly moving down to the redhead's height to try and convince him of go after his father, when the little boy turned to him, muttering a vague apology, then turned around and wailed for the older man. And it wasn't a nice or good thing at all, and brought Naruto running for the older boy faster than a fire alarm, but he couldn't help smiling a little. It was kind of cute after all.

On the other side of the wall, Daichi hunched over his crossed arm like a wetted owl and stayed blissfully ignorant to the sharp cry that tore through the air after a few moments later. He was not going back there, no way. It would be showing that the kid was finally getting out what he wanted from him and he was the last person on the world to share with his power. Especially with kid of that age.

'Daddyyy!' wailed through the house, making Temari peek out of the other door for a moment, then hide once he looked back at her. Kankuro didn't dare to do even that once he simply shooed him there with one showing of a hand. If Gaara wanted anything from him after such outrageous behavior he would have to run up and apologize for himself. Or something like that. It hurt too much for a normal wound and the blood didn't even stop running from the invisible cut, so all cries for a plea were more begging for revenge than mercy. Even if it wasn't exactly how he was supposed to act. He just felt the kid deserved the hysteria he went through. For the first time, he made it to himself on his own.

'Daddy, dunleabmeee!' hiccupped in a heavy sob, making him turn his head to the side. He was not moving. Inside the kitchen, Gaara also didn't move. He just felt so helpless and hopeless that even running after father who in his mind was already gone forever just didn't even sound like anything worth doing. So he just stood in the place in a despairing wail, hugging himself to the toy and Naruto like if both of them were big fluffy cushions he could lean on and ignore at the same time just enough. Indeed, after a moment, the plushie landed on the floor, completely forgotten as the needed hand had to go up the eyes to wipe away the tears that didn't want to stop flowing. 'Daddyyy!...' He didn't want to say that! He didn't mean to! He just wanted him back… 'Daddy comebaw, daddy!...'

Minato stared nervously at the scene – he would have undoubtedly tried to console the kid had it not been because Naruto was there – but he had his limits, and Gaara was crying in such a despairing way that he'd nearly given up and crouched down to take him in his arms to do his level best to soothe him before Naruto did it for him.

'Gaara!' his son shouted over a particularly loud wail. 'Gaara, stop crying already and just go get him!'

The little blond had pulled away far enough to be able to look at the redhead and he used the hands he had on the smaller boy's shoulders to shake him. He wasn't sure he liked the boy's father too much and he probably had done a bad thing to get Gaara to cry like this, but if he was this unhappy… Not to mention what he would do himself in his own daddy were… well, gone.

'He can't be too far away, come on!' Pulling of the younger boy, he barely leaned down to catch the plush and tug at the other. And maybe if the older man had actually left Minato wouldn't have been left staring after the pair with that awfully complex feeling that was equal parts sadness, pride and worry. Because if he'd actually left, there would be a danger of Naruto actually following with his words and going out on his own, but even so, that didn't change the fact he was so much like Kushina it hurt him.

Gaara followed obediently, not even seeing where he was going as he still kept on crying. The toy that was pushed into him again was held in a loose catch, trailing after him on the floor as he just kept on holding, not knowing why actually. He felt lost. It was like if the worst of his nightmares came true. He didn't want that. At all.

'Daddyyy!...' he hiccupped with already sore throat as he was pulled out of the door and almost tripped as he hadn't noticed the man at first. But when he did, he immediately let go of anything he was holding and ran up to him, holding onto his leg closer, closer, the closest 'Daddy!...'

Daichi didn't unlock his hands as he stared at him from above with half hurt, half cold gaze. The way the kid cried was jabbing at his already doubtful image of himself being a father, but then, he knew that if he wanted to be a good parent, he had to be hard. So he didn't waver and didn't bend over to pat the red mass of hair in calming gesture. With that, he only turned his head to the side and waited, ignoring, deaf. He was not giving out anything. And if it was fine with Gaara, then it meant he couldn't teach kids the value of relationships.

Indeed, in a moment, the redhead looked up, grabbing on one pant and shaking it a little, demanding more attention as he sunk into more desperate wailing, seeing that his hug was not welcome at all. That was awful. Daddy was going to leave him after all!... No!...

'Daddy!...' he cried, sobbing as he clung on the material. Daichi finally turned his head toward him with cold expression 'Daddyyy!...'

'What.' he asked sharply, almost like if he was intending to cut off the cry. Gaara didn't react, only let out a louder wail, obviously feeling that everything was going in wrong direction. Daichi blinked and waited for another moment. Gods, like if the kid didn't know what he did!... He waited for another moment and when no other reaction was provided, uncrossed his hands, fisting them tightly. 'What do you want?' he barked at the kid, this time making him jump a little, startled. For a moment Gaara hushed down completely, looking at him with wide, tearful eyes. Daichi sighed. No use. 'I'm leaving!'

And with that, he pushed the kid, going to another room. He didn't have idea what to do yet, it happened too fast and he was not ready for such a blow. Gaara let out another panicked wail and ran up after him, catching his leg again, making him unable to move – unless he wanted to actually hurt the child by stomping on little feet or kicking it accidentally. He scowled, turning to him fiercely.

'What?' he shouted again, making Gaara cling only tighter 'I said I'm leaving and you said you don't care so go back to Mr. Uzumaki and stay there! You hear me?'

'No!... No, daddy, no, no, I don't wanna!...'

'I said get off!'

With that, Daichi finally lost the patience he didn't have to begin with since he heard what Gaara decided to do and pushed the kid hard enough to actually get him off. Gaara tumbled a bit with a surprised squeal, then finally, he lost his balance and landed on his knees against the hard surface. For moment the silence emerged again as looked at him, indecisive as he saw that he overdid it, and made the step back to actually check on him and as Gaara sat on the floor, shocked by additional pain he obtained from the floor. But then he rose his head to look at the man and Daichi stopped, looking at him with a frown.

'Daddy…' he whispered, holding out his hands at the figure in front of him, wanting now only one thing, to be hugged by the man and be kept safe to tell him that everything was all right and that he was not leaving him and that he forgave him and that it wouldn't really happen.. 'Daddy… daddy, I'm sorry… daddy…'

Daichi tsked.

'Go be sorry elsewhere.' And with that, he turned his back to the child and walked away.

'No! Nooo! Daddyyy! Daddy, don't leave me!... Daddyyy!...' wailed the kid again, quickly getting up from the kneeling and running after the man, but as the pain hit him on the scrapped skin, he tripped again, falling on the floor, again hurting the same place painfully. 'Daddyyy!...'

After a moment or two, Minato followed the kids, barely peeking on the side. Even though he knew he hadn't left he was worried about the kids going too near the door, even though it was locked from the inside and the keys were too high for any of them to reach.

What he spied on the hallway wasn't exactly nice or reassuring, but he couldn't help finding it sweet. Selfishly, and most likely by the wrong reasons, but still sweet. The older man was making a face that was so much like Gaara, but especially Kankuro when he was crossed that he couldn't help but chuckle a little. It was obvious the man was jealous, for some stupid reason and sure, it wasn't exactly an encouraged reaction, not to mention that for someone so worried about Gaara going into hysterics he wasn't doing much to calm him, but at least it showed he cared for his kids.

Selfishly and immaturely, sure, but at least he did care. He called for his son softly, through Naruto seemed to be caught between going and pulling Gaara away from the older man and following after him. Eventually the little blond decided that maybe the man would be less mean to Gaara if maybe there wasn't any public around and begrudgingly followed his father, only to stop dead on his tracks at the sound Gaara made when he fell down.

Neither of the blonds moved on the following maybe two or even three seconds of silence when Gaara starred up at his father before he jumped back up and tried to follow him. This time when he fell, Naruto let out a loud cry and started after him, but this time Minato was faster. In a moment he was next to the redhead and immediately picked him up, clutching him to his chest protectively.

'What are you doing?' That expression again. One would have expected the blond to look mad, maybe even disgusted by what had happened, but he looked scared again. Like if the older man had purposely pushed Gaara down just to hurt him instead of simply watching him fall down on his own. 'What are you trying to do to him?' With a mutter of something inintangible, Naruto firmly placed himself in front of his father.

Daichi stopped for a moment, then let out something close to sneer as he looked back at the blond. Perfect image. A caring parent hugging a scared child with a caring brother who is ready to protect them both like a brave future-to-be member of adult community. Perfect.

'Nothing.' he muttered and turned back again, walking up to the room where he left his wet clothes previously 'I'm leaving, have fun with that rebelling brat he seems to want to be.' And with that he started walking again. Gaara let out a pleading whine and when it didn't take any effect on the older male, with panicked expression he started pushing at the hold, like a small animal that got caught into bear trap and sensed hungry wolves coming.

'No!... let go, daddy is going to go...! Daddy… daddy!'

Minato stared after the man as he retreated, flinching at the way he looked at him, but still not letting go of the squirming redhead in his arms.

'I'll talk to him. Naruto…' leaned down to carefully let the little blond help the redhead down. 'There are some band aids in the bathroom, why don't you see how Gaara is and I'll talk with his father…' Only that once he was inside the small and slightly stuffy room where the drier was still working at the clothes, he didn't really manage to say anything, just stare at the older man. Gaara cried out in protest, but followed with Naruto, even if for the whole time he kept on staring after the older man. Daichi didn't even flinch at it, initially glad that the little cut was being taken care of before he could do it himself – the road back to home would obviously be too much for a wound to stay reach to disinfect it.

But when he went to the small stuffed room, he didn't sit down or even face the man following him. He just stood, staring at the walls and clenching his fists. He was down to the hole and if anyone wanted to help him digging, he was ready to say 'thank you' with fists. His nerves wouldn't take much more for what was happening in his life lately. 'Yes?' he asked finally, microscopically moving his head to the side, showing he was listening to whatever the blonde had to say.

'What is it that you wanted to tell me now?'

Minato was pressed against the door, apparently blocking the way out, through the truth was that he was doing it to keep himself from going out. The room was really too hot with the warm air that came from the drier, and he immediately started feeling it was too small. He wasn't claustrophobic, but the idea of being there locked up with tat man made him feel as if he were. When he finally turned towards him he reached up to clasp at his elbows, trying to say something- trying to at least think of something to say, but came up empty. What finally came out of his mouth was a small, bitter accusation.

'You told me you didn't beat your kids.'

Daichi didn't move. He didn't know where the man was getting at, but he had the impression it was going to be one of the false accusation guilty ride. He was too old for hat.

'I don't.' he said calmly, but not before he swallowed the saliva he had in his mouth. The air in the room felt almost clammy on his skin.

'…then what was that?'

Daichi let out a chuckle out of disbelief. Then calmed down, turning his head to another man, looking at him like if he was the reporter that wanted to sell him the old lies he had to deal for his whole life. Unbelievable.

''That was' what.' he asked, then tightened his frown into less friendly one 'Don't tell me you want to say what I think you want to say.' The last word was almost bitten out through the teeth as he looked at the man. Darned blonds. They all, and he meant it – all looked like if they waited for him to go and started chasing them through streets with a knife. It was probably something in DNA because just like his wife and her brother, there was something shifty in those blue eyes. He didn't like spanning his attention like that. The blond's eyes slowly narrowed, as if for some reason he liked being angry even less than being scared.

'What I mean?' he asked, his voice soft, more than likely to keep the children from hearing it. 'I mean you pushed your son down and now he's bleeding. I mean he had an accident recently and that if he had fallen on his head the scar in his head could have gotten open again and you either didn't think about it or didn't even care. Why would you even want to do something like that?'

The rest of the frivolous smile that was held on Daichi's face, was gone. He finally turned around to the blond with face that showed the block he was already putting up in his mind against the man who seemed to want to search somewhere where it was absolutely not his thing to look.

'He was hindering my walking.' he said more offensively than defensively 'So I got him off. Got a problem with that, Mr. Righteous?'

The blond frowned even more, though the expression in his face still didn't seem to settle for anger exclusively. He still looked more disappointed than anything else.

'That's what you think of your children? That they're hindrances? He is a little kid and you told him you would abandon him, what did you expect him to do?'

Daichi opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out and he frowned at the sudden realization. What did he expect him to do?...

'I… don't know.' he said looking at the site, the beaten realization dawning on him with torment 'I…' Silence.

The blond didn't say anything, and as the redhead didn't either, the only sound in the room was the blowing air from the drier and the almost unbreathable and humid atmosphere.

'I'm sorry.' The blond finally said, reaching with a hand to brush at a brow that felt clammy and sweaty. 'I know what Gaara said hurt you, but that...' and the that was softly emphasized with the blond's for once perceived accent, sounding like a physical thing rather than a metaphorical reference. '... he didn't mean it. And you know that, don't you?'

Daichi's glare deepened for a moment with hurt, then hardened like if the liquid became a hard surface. Right. He didn't mean it.

'He exactly meant just that.' he muttered, then he grimaced in distaste as he crossed his arms 'Who would have thought… but if he so wants to stay then who am I to deny him what he wants! After all he is such a spoiled brat I probably never denied him anything!' And with that, without much thinking he got rid of the borrowed shirt and started getting on his own, not completely dried yet 'I'm leaving, I have enough with bearing with all that. If he wants to stay he can stay and if that's not okay with you then you can show him the doors, maybe that will teach him something. I need to think.'

'If he had meant that, do you think he would have started crying like that?' The blond said indignantly, an odd expression crossing his face as the man started to take off his clothes and not exactly leaving. 'He is five years old, how old are you?'

'Too old to take it calmly any longer.' answered Daichi sarcastically as he quickly swapped his pants for his old jeans and turned around to look at the man, not even slightly fazed. Somewhere on the way he had completely forgotten what was the shame of the body when it came to being close to any other human – men simply didn't have obstacles and women could go and scream, he simply didn't care. Somewhere on the way, he has completely forgotten what was a cherish of a body because he simply had nothing to cherish there anymore. Buttoning up his front opening of the clothes, he came close to the blond with steely expression, not touching him, but ready to do that in unpleasant way if he had to and waited for a moment or two.

When nothing's happened, he narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms.

'Move out of the way.'

The blond had opened his mouth to answer something, looking worried and angry and not really knowing what to do to calm the obviously upset man, but the moment he turned towards him, as soon as he was one step into his personal bubble, the blue eyes widened and he shot a hand at the redhead and pushed him away, incidentally flattening himself against the door. It wasn't a punch, as his hand was open, but if it had been, it would have been enough for it to hurt. As it was, the redhead only stumbled back until he hit the unused wash machine.

'I...' The younger man only took a hand to his mouth and remained staring at the saffron haired man like a deer at the headlights. Daichi stopped for a moment, looking at the blond with disbelief. His mind numbed out in the strange reaction he has gotten of the blond, so he just stood as he landed against the machine he was now standing against and looked at him with widely opened eyes. Then his brows furrowed.

'What was that.' he asked in low whisper, slowly ungluing himself from the wall and descending into a hostile position 'You want to fight me now? Huh?'

The blond shook his head wildly, his mouth still not seeming to be connected to the rest of his body, remaining completely useless. The dark blue eyes widened even more, making him look more or less his son's age. The air was thick and humid, even with the machine now stopped. He felt like if he were swimming in it rather than merely breathing. He slid a little down the door.

Daichi stared at him, breathing heavily with anger, but with every breath more or less of his sanity came back to him. He couldn't beat up the man because he wanted to do something with his hands. Even if the behavior of previous act was completely strange. Finally, he took one last breath, closing his eyes for a moment and cutting himself off from his desperate need to beat something up. And then he straightened.

'Move out of the way.' he murmured, looking at the blond with gaze that didn't leave any room for protesting. 'Now.'

There was no protesting from the younger man. Protesting would have required rational thought, and those seemed to have decided to go skinny dipping with cement shoes at a particularly deep and muddy lake. He moved –slowly, surprised at how the underwater and sickeningly warm feeling remained with him- and opened the door, sliding to the side and finally out of the hellish enclosed space. The comparatively cold and blissfully fresh air quickly sobered him up and made him more aware of his surroundings, banishing the feeling his own body didn't want to hold him up, as if it had never been there in the first place. Without looking back to see what the other man was doing, he walked past the door and into the bathroom.

'Daddy…?'

He managed a smile for Naruto, who had again managed to climb the sink, and after cursory look at the older kids, who seemed to be concentrated on covering the scrape on Gaara's leg with band aids, he grabbed at his son and clutched him to his chest.

'Is it better now, Gaara?' he asked gently, looking at the work of the older girl. His voice sounded a little strange, though it would be difficult to point at in what way. The redhead, whose wailing has subdued now to a quick hiccups of whine looked at Minato with face that was already pink with crying and tiredness and shook his head in protest, not managing to even say a word as Kankuro still kept holding his leg up while the girl managed to add the last touches to the band aid.

'Whe-where is- is dad-dy?...' he asked, looking like if he was only in the midbreak of real hysteria and he was ready to show the world what really hysteric looked like. 'I want- to- to dad- dy…'

'He's changing.' the blond replied, reaching with a hand to ruffle the red hair lightly, though he made no move to put his son down. 'Don't worry about it.'

'Daddy…' Naruto was looking at his father with an uncertain look, and some dim part of Minato was sure he would feel guilty about that look as soon as his thought pattern decided to come back from sleeping with the fishies.

'Yes?' Naruto hesitated, but seemed at loss of what to say, just wrapping his arms around his chest and sticking his torso like a sticker. This lasted for a moment as the redhead looked at the scene with pink white of his eyes, still not stopping his audible hiccupping. Changing?... Where was his daddy changing?... Why was he changing?... Why couldn't he be near him like Naruto was to his daddy?... Daddy never made a problem with him being around when he changed!... He was going to leave him, wasn't he?... And just when the girl tapped the leg off, punctuating that the knee was now safe, to door to the bathroom has opened with explicit screech.

'Ah, there you are.' said the saffron haired man with the voice that seemed to be nothing but dull compared to the situation 'Kankuro, Temari, come on. We're going.' Both of the siblings looked at him, indecisive, but when he rose his brows, inclining scandalous surprise, they moved from the spot. Gaara looked at him like if he just saw something he had never seen for once in his life, even his trembling has stopped as he waited. Kankuro, Temari… and him? For sure him, he will just look up like that, just now and look at him with that little annoyed glare, like now, and say…

'I'll give the clothes back later.' …and closed the door after himself. That was not what he was supposed to say.

Gaara looked at the door with wide eyes, the realization slowly glowing on him in big, strong undefined fear as he started trembling much more now and even standing up from his sitting made a big problem. And yet, he went up to the door with trembling legs, only to see both of his siblings and his father dressing up in coats like if they were just going out, like usual, only without him…

…without him…

With much bigger fear he ran up to the pair and quickly scooped up his own jacket that was just a bigger sweater of Daichi and started dressing up quickly too, like if he was only behind what everyone else was doing. Daichi threw him a look, but didn't react to that, zipping up the coat of Temari. Gaara calmed down a bit. So, it was only a threat after all. So he wore his shoes with still a little quickness, wanting to make up for lost of time and turned to wave goodbyes at Naruto and his dad as the door outside opened.

'Bye-' he said, going out after Kankuro, only to be stopped by a strong hand of his father.

'And where are you going?' he asked in a little surprised, cold tone 'I thought you wanted to stay.' The redhead looked back at him with surprise. What?...

'No…' he meeped, but the man has already pushed him back deeper into apartment. 'Daddy!...'

'You said you wanted to stay so keep up your promises. We're going.' he shot one blank glance at the people inside the house and let go of the kid 'Goodbye, Gaara.'

And with that, he locked the door.

The big black cold and unfriendly door… that always seemed to Gaara like if they protected them from evilness coming inside but now… now it almost seemed he heard the doors of the jail locking. The teddy fell down on the floor as he looked at the door, listening to big, calm steps of the man and two others, faster, going along him, fading, vanishing… He left him. His daddy had left him. And took Kankuro and Temari. He was alone. _Alone_. The next reaction wasn't logical or dictated by anything reasonable. He just did it because it felt right to. It felt like if it was the only thing he could do.

He started screaming. And it was a scream so loud and so shrill that it was impossible for the man on the other side of the door to not hear it, and the same was probably with neighbors. Maybe if he was older he would be able to restrain himself as he would know he was sounding like if someone was murdering him, but what could he know about it. Now he was only a little kid. So he screamed, with voice, without words. For steps to not fade away.

At the sound, Naruto stiffened on his arms and jerked to the floor so hard that Minato had trouble keeping him in place. That man was hurting Gaara and his daddy wasn't letting him go!

'Daddy, let me go!'

'…'

'…daddy!' Minato clutched his son closer. _I won't help him. I won't help him anymore._

And nothing has happened. The man didn't return after a minute, two, three or even five as the kid kept screaming at the door. And then the sixth and seven minute passed and the screaming got hoarse and rasped, like if Gaara was smoking too many cigarettes in his short life. By the tenth minute, everything finally fell silent. The redhead kept staring at the door like if they held him from all secrets of the whole world, his face first pink, now paling in even worse realization. Daddy left him… daddy has left him and… and…

…he was not coming back for him.

He went out. Went out and was not coming back. Not coming back at all. Like mommy. Mommy… Green eyes looked down at the plushie that kept on laying on the floor, forgotten and picked it up, staring at it with something akin to fear and disbelief. Then, with slow moves, he slowly started ripping the side of already broken zip away only to get the a little crumbled up photo out. Then he simply threw the toy away and sat under the door, hugging it to himself and looking at the door-knob with already forming patience. If he waited enough. If he only waited enough, daddy would come back. And mommy. And everyone. And they would be happy. He only had to wait. So he sat on the floor, stared at the door-knob and rocked himself lightly out of too many emotions he held in himself.

He only had to wait.


	15. 15: Movie

Gaara shrieked nonstop, in a way that made Minato's own throat ache, in a way that made his own son's demands to be released sound dim by comparison. It was only when the shrieking stopped that he let go of his son. Naruto's face was red, tears streaming from his eyes in a way that seemed to be more panic driven than actual sadness, and he wasted a moment staring at his father like if he didn't know what he was supposed to do, before turning around and running out of the room and to the hallway. When he saw the redhead, he practically tackled him.

The redhead keeled over under the pressure, but his gaze didn't for once leave the door or even reacted to what's happened. He was waiting. Naruto had to wait for his hugging. Because if he stopped it would be not enough. Not enough like until now and daddy would be just gone, gone and gone…

…and he didn't want that. So he kept staring at the door, without reaction to the hug.

One floor lower, Daichi stood up against the wall, starring numbly at the wall in front of him, in both of his hands holding the palms of two other kids. They both kept on giving him scared glances, like if they expected him to go on haywire and throw them out of that window or something of similar kind. And to tell the truth, he didn't feel completely sane by now. Because that what he did just now… was unlike him. He never did something like that. And listening to such howls he never thought he would hear from the youngest of his kids was simply like kicking him in the back of the eye. Or groin. Or both. Repeatedly.

Gods, he was such a bad father. But when one said A there was only left to say B and he couldn't now go back and act upon on his instinct to run there like a madman and crawl before the little baby on his knees for begging for forgiveness. The lessons had to be learned. So he stood and held on his other kids, trying not to cry. But if there was any other way out of this, he didn't see it. No other way of parenting ever worked for those kids. No other way.

'Dad?...' asked Kankuro as the cries had finally stopped, looking up at him with a wince. His hand cracked like if it was about to pop out of his wrist. Daichi looked at him with absent eyes. 'That hurts…'

'Ah, sorry.' he muttered in apology he didn't have enough heart to put in and loosened his holds on the kids, but not enough to actually let them wander off. 'I was just… thinking…'

'Daddy.'

This time it was Temari. She looked up at him with calm face, though he could see in those eyes that if there was any emotion on the world she could feel now, it was surely not calmness. Her eyes shone like if she had fire in them.

'What is it?...' he asked weakly, for the first time feeling like if he was the one to be scolded by kids and deserving it absolutely. 'Can we go back for Gaara now?' She was serious.

'Yeah.' added Kankuro in the same tone. 'He had already stopped. Can we?'

He turned his gaze to the other side, catching the unhappy pout on the kid's face, like if he had just screwed up majorly a very good party. It wasn't very far from truth anyway. He blinked, straightening up.

'Yes.' he muttered, sniffing up his nose a bit. It was a little cold in there. Yeah. Definitely 'Yes, we can.'

In the house, Gaara still kept on sitting and watching the door. Already some more time has passed since daddy has left, but it was very little for the hope he was welding in himself. He waited so long till now, so a few minutes was nothing to him. He listened to the clock ticking in another room and counted the ticks, completely ignoring the meaning of numbers that kept on crowding in his head in a numerous melee. Also, the heat of Naruto was good, but still, before he could sink into it, he still had to wait. So he waited. And waited. And waited. And finally, the doorbell has rang.

He was first on his legs, even before the first buzz has died and he was the first to reach for the knob, not even locked, forgetting that it was not his home and he couldn't act that way. But now when daddy was back he only wanted to run up into the waiting arms and nothing else mattered. Only that. With a quick, clumsy moves he finally had turned the knob around, opening the door with half teary smile, ready to run the distance that really wasn't there when it was only a step away and…

…the person that stood on the other side of the door wasn't daddy. It was someone else.

'Oh, hello there.' it said, blinking at the sight of two kids opening the door and not an adult, then graced them both with a smile 'I didn't think I would see you again so quick, little angel.'

And then, the gloved hands had reached for the hood, getting it down, revealing the mass of short, straw-colored hair, then the other reached for the scarf that kept on tucking the half of the face so high only the pair of eyes could be visible. And then it took it down. Gaara's heartbeat quickened as his eyes widened more and more, not recognizing, not understanding… but then the scarf was gone and he didn't have to wonder anymore. It wasn't daddy. But it was just as good as that.

'Mommy!' he cried loudly, abandoning the photo on the floor and getting out of the hug, only to fall into the arms of already crouching person with a loud, heart wrenching cry. Finally. Finally. The man smiled, stroking the redhead on the bloody strands and got up, rocking the kid slightly in a calm manner as he looked deep into the flat with a smile that didn't wavered from his face.

'Good evening, Mr. Uzumaki.' he said in a polite, heartwarming greeting, then looking down at the blonde before him 'You must be Naruto. Hello there. I hope I'm not interrupting anything?...'

And just then, Daichi descended upon the stairs with two other kids. For a moment, the silence fell. Two other kids gaped at the man with silence as Daichi's face has paled for three tones, looking at him like if he had just seen a ghost.

'Mom?...' quietly asked Kankuro with unsure voice. Temari had immediately hid herself behind the older male legs.

'You!...' hissed Daichi in half of a breath as the other rest has blocked his lungs quite effectively 'You!...'

'…I guess I am after all.' said the man, not reacting to the agitation of another man and he turned to Minato once again 'Can we come inside? It's cold out there and I surely wouldn't mind a cup of tea. Right, Gaara?' The redhead nodded, tossing a glance toward Daichi, but not moving a bit. So, daddy had came back too. He knew that he only had to wait after all. Now everything was all right.

'…daddy?' Naruto's voice was unsure as he stared at the person next to them. Gaara's mom? He looked a bit like a girl… and a whole lot like Temari, but the voice was that of a guy. And Gaara called him mommy and his daddy always told him about The 811 lady… Minato stared in confusion. He'd been waiting for the man to come back, that being the only reason he hadn't tried to stop Gaara from getting to the door, even if watching Naruto hold the unresisting redhead was physically painful for him. That's when things went down, because what seemed to be the splitting image of the woman in the photo Gaara hid inside the teddy had appeared out of nowhere.

He didn't know this person, and things were suddenly too complicated, but he knew two things. He knew who he was and who his son was. And he had Gaara in his arms. How had this person gotten here? His address wasn't anywhere and he hadn't thought himself followed… he hadn't… he'd been paying attention as of late, hadn't he? Had he made a crucial mistake, had this person been sent by Kaho?

'I don't know who you are.' The blond said, his voice barely something above a whisper 'But let me have Gaara first, please.'

The man blinked, looking at him still with a smile, though it dimmed a bit.

'You don't know me? But I was sure Daichi had told you about me since I'm such an important person in his life…' he said with something of a surprised and disappointed voice, like if the saffron haired man forgot to mention one of his important cousins 'I'm Yashamaru... you know?...'

But when he saw no recognition on another blond's face, his smile had only changed into another heartwarming one, turning to Daichi.

'I should've expected that. My, my, Daichi, you haven't changed at all.' The other man still stared, with his voice mute. But finally, he seemed to regain of his consciousness, because he finally let go of the other kids, walking up to the man in the quick pace. How dared he!...

'You prick!...' he muttered through tightly shut jaws ' Give me back my child!'

And with that he had already reached out for the redhead, only to obtain nothing as Gaara let out a whimper of something close to fear and, like if it was a sign, by that made Yashamaru turn back on the man, curling around the kid like if he was expecting to be hit. Daichi stopped, seeing as Gaara didn't let go, but only stuck to the man more, looking at him with observing eyes, not demanding to be given back.

'My, my and so violent like always!...' said the blond with a warm chuckle, then he moved inside the house stroking the child and looking at it like if it was a little precious gem 'Don't act so brute, you will scare the kids… oh, I forgot that you don't care about that. I think I'd better give you to this nice blond man instead.' And with that he moved actually so close to Minato to give him the redhead. Gaara looked at him and whimpered, curling himself more into the arms he was already in, looking at the other with a plea.

'No… mommy…'

Minato was looking at the interaction between the two men, liking this less and less by the second, though at least this didn't seem to be something schemed by Kaho. Maybe he hadn't been followed. Maybe the bastard of the older redhead had.

'Gaara, this isn't your mother.' he said softly, though not aggressively. It wasn't a jab at the man, merely an explanation. Even without the redhead's cooperation, he took him from the blond's arms and held him close to keep him from squirming too much. 'Temari, Kankuro… come inside, it's cold.' And the other two? He wouldn't have cared if they stayed outside, but the femmish looking man had already waltzed in. Naruto was looking at him quizzically as he stuck to his leg, probably more scared by Gaara's father than by the other man. The redhead whimpered against the hold, obviously not wanting to be in his arms, but he didn't protest much as the other man bended down against him, stroking his cheek carefully.

'It's okay Gaara.' he said simply, then looked down in surprise, only to crouch and pick up two items 'Oh, I see that you kept this with you. That's good.'

He smiled at him, giving him back the photo which Gaara held more than gladly, not leaving eyes from the man and smiling a little with a blush. He knew that it had to work with photograph. He was sure of it. He hugged both of the objects close to himself, not really concerned about the fact that teddy was tore now and the photo had a sign of a footstep on it. The real mommy was here. He completely didn't understand what was Naruto's dad talking about.

Yashamaru smiled at him one more time and then he turned to the other people outside, not losing anything from his facial expression. Daichi tsked as the glance has landed on him and he tightened the hold on the shoulders of both of his kids to keep them in place. Too late thought. Before he could do that, Kankuro was already running up through the hallways to the man.

'Kankuro!' shouted the girl, looking after him, but he didn't even turn around at that. He only stopped when he was standing on the floor just by the blonde person. Yashamaru looked down at him. And then, his smile widened a bit.

'Hello, Kankuro.'

The kid didn't answer, still staring up at him, searching for the things on the face, and not finding anything. No matter what he thought – not that he thought much about it - he just couldn't deceive what he saw. It was her.

'Mom?...' he asked, his eyes shining with millions of untold questions, the first one being the brightest and the most obvious. Yashamaru bended down to stroke the brown mass of the head.

'You've grown much more since I last saw you, Kankuro.'

And that was it. Against all his rules and pride, the boy had simply just put his arms around the neck of the blond, hugging himself tightly to the still clothed body and had quickly circled the rest of the body with his legs as he was put up. He couldn't believe it!... It was a miracle!... And it felt so good…

'Stupid Kankuro!' shouted Temari, finally getting out from her hiding of Daichi's legs 'That's not mommy! You're stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!...'

Yashamaru shot her a glance, holding against the boy, who, blushing deeply, seemed to be deaf or rather – determined to stay deaf to what was shouted at him. Really, no wonder.

'Calm down, Temari.' he spoke quietly, looking at her. The girl was doing her best to not start crying, but it seemed that the shouting she made her deconcetrate quite much 'Don't worry, I'll hold you too-'

'I don't want to be held by you!' she creamed, fat tears already rolling down her cheeks as she run inside the apartment, passing them both with a rude push and vanishing into one of the rooms 'Kankuro, you idiooot!...' The brunet didn't move, still stuck deeply into staring at one point on the still clothed shoulder. 'I was waiting.' He muttered finally and turned his face to hide it in the neck as he grimaced, starting to tremble in regular quiet cry. Yashamaru smiled at him, stroking the hair of his.

'I know.' he said quietly, kissing him and walking further into the place, not minding Minato with Gaara who seemed to calm down as his arms started to be occupied by one of his siblings. 'I know.'

Daichi scowled helplessly, seeing that he was by, the most gentle words – ignored and could do nothing about it. He stepped inside the house with a grim face and closed the door behind him. He really was not prepared for something like this.

'…who is he.' Minato had starred after the figure, hating the way the man walked into his house as if nothing, but hating even more the fact he had now Kankuro on his clutches and that this seemed dangerous, very much so. He stared at the older redhead as he clutches his youngest son to his chest. 'Who is that person and what does he want here?'

Daichi shot him a rather unhappy, grim glance.

'It's my brother-in-law.' he muttered finally, tucking his hands into his pockets. By walking into both of those lives, the other man had really made it hard to conceal any information so he had no other choice but actually, to tell it. He didn't like it, but he knew that hiding it would cause much more needless stress and he had enough of that with him solely coming by like that 'My wife's twin. And how the hell I'm supposed to know, I never gave him this address. He isn't supposed to be here.'

Minato glared at him, suddenly furious. For what he has just done to Gaara, for how he acted, for having threatened him in the other room. Without a word, he turned around, still keeping Gaara on his arms and using a hand to usher Naruto inside. He didn't want to have the strange man in his house, and much less somewhere where he couldn't see what he was doing. The fact his laptop was son the default session and not his private one was little to no consolation.

'Kankuro…' the boy was still on the man's arms, and Minato was suddenly very worried by the fact neither of the kids seemed to realize this was a man. He looked delicate and he was their mother's twin, but how could someone not tell…? And maybe Gaara shouldn't, but Kankuro was old enough to be able to tell the difference, right? 'Come with me, I'll put a movie for you guys.'

Both of the kids stared at Minato like if he had just offered them a second portion of bitter tasting 'healthy' salad. Completely not interested.

'No, mommy…' said Gaara, starting to squirm again as Kankuro had simply turned his sight to the other side, hugging himself to the man in complete relaxation. The blond smiled.

'That's actually a pretty good idea.' he said, smiling at Minato, stroking the hair of the boy he was holding 'A nice movie to watch would be good now, right? Go get your sister.'

'But mom…' protested Kankuro weakly, looking at Yashamaru with sorrow in his eyes. Gaara let out a whimper. The man has smiled.

'Oh, don't worry, I'll join you later.' he said simply, ruffling the brunet hair, but with little to no positive effect.

'Promise?' said Gaara, piping from Minato's arms. Yashamaru nodded.

'Of course. I'm sure that won't be a problem. After all, TV in your house doesn't work so that wouldn't be possible to do there…'

'How do you know that?' howled Daichi, immediately stepping closer. Yashamaru smiled at him with mirth. Daichi froze. 'No… you went in…' …and he still hadn't scrapped the dried blood from the floor.

'Shshsh.' said the man, putting the finger over his still nice expression, making him wince. It was so Karura-like 'Let's not scare the kids… that wouldn't be very nice.' And with that, he had turned around, asking for directions to the TV room, which Kankuro had gladly gave him. Gaara turned to Minato.

'Daddy too?' He didn't dare to speak up. He had no voice left. He was screwed. From every remaining side. Simply screwed. Minato stared after the kids, feeling more and more nervous as the situation simply seemed to be getting out of the hands. If it hadn't been for the kids, he would have done anything he could to get everyone out of the department. He told himself he was paranoid, that this obviously had nothing to do with that woman, but he couldn't help thinking this man had come here. Why not wait at them in their house if he knew where they lived? And why did he want to be inside his house? Sure, he hadn't reacted like this the first time he had invited the kid's father the first time… because he had invited him in. Not this man who, for some reason, said nothing about the fact the kids thought him to be his, for all he knew, dead twin.

'…let's go, I'll bring you something to drink in a little while, okay? You can watch that movie about the cooking mouse.' taking Kankuro by the hand, he guided him to the room-. Hopefully the 3-d movie about a talking rat would be good enough to hold the kid's interest. Naruto stayed right where he was, staring at both men distrustingly. Daichi didn't even toss him one glance. Instead, he turned to Yashamaru, who, on the other hand seemed to be much more interested.

'How the hell did you get there?...' he asked through his teeth, low enough to not be heard by people in other room 'I told you to keep away from us!... I didn't give you the address to this place!...'

'Oh, calm down, Daichi, I'm not doing anything wrong, I just came to say hello to the new uncle.' he said, crouching in front of Naruto and smiling at him 'Hello, Naruto. I'm Yashamaru. How are you?'

'I told you to not mix third people into anything that's between us!...' hissed again Daichi. Yashamaru still kept crouching in front of kid and smiling at him.

'It's you who brought the family of Uzumakis in, whether you like it or not. I haven't gone to help to strangers, unlike you.' Yashamaru said holding out a hand to say hello 'And getting here was quite easy, I only had to make a few calls… really, that Mr. Sarutobi is a really nice man.'

Daichi's eyes widened. That was getting much further than he expected.

'I'm not giving you my kids.' he whispered through pale lips. Yashamaru didn't even budge. 'Oh, but you already did, Daichi… that scream was beautiful. Perfectly beautiful.' said the blond, flashing the side of mini-recorder and hiding it into the pocket of his coat 'Thanks to that I didn't have to search through neighbors, I just came in and already knew where it was. That was really nice of you to abuse Karura's child like that.'

'They're my children now and it's none of your-'

'It's my business. All of it...' Yashamaru said, pausing and smiling gently, clearly indicating what 'it' was and how come it was sitting in another room and watching a movie '…is already mine. From some time now. You're really just a completely crazy hopeless case.'

And with that, he turned to the blond child again, smiling at him sweetly.

'So, how will it be? Will you give me your hand?'

Naruto was going to. He really saw no reason not to, the man seemed to be nice, unlike Gaara's dad, even if he looked like a girl and Gaara thought him to be his mom. But then Gaara's dad started talking and things got hard to understand, besides the obvious hostility between the two men. And that reminded him of something very important.

'I'm not supposed to.' he mumbled, taking a step back, though it seemed to be more because of the order rather than being afraid of doing so. Besides, the last part of what the blond mean had said was very true. Gaara's dad was mean and probably crazy. 'I'll do it if my daddy lets me.'

Yashamaru's smile had only widened.

'That's okay, Naruto.' he said, getting his hand back to himself. Really that kid was also an example of cute for a boy 'You don't have to. Your daddy had taught you well. Listen to him.' And with that he got up to straightened position, looking at Daichi with still the same sweet smile, but this time something close to jeer has flashed into his eyes. Daichi scowled and looked down at the blond kid as there was no other person he could turn to. But then, what could he say to Naruto?

'Don't touch him.' he said finally, not really caring but not wanting another people to suffer because of what Yashamaru could do. And with that he sat down on one of the chairs, not even daring to speak up. What could he say? Nothing. He could only grab a knife that was laying on the counter and pray for not getting electric chair after that. Which was a very risky idea. And tempting. Very. He could hardly tear his eyes away from the object in already growing despair.

'So, how about the tea?' said Yashamaru cheerily and started looking around the kitchen like if he was allowed to do anything there 'Since nobody wants to serve us that…' After a moment he was already rummaging through the shelves with cups and taking out three of them. 'Naruto, do you want tea too?'

'Please don't go around our things, sir.' the blond's father said politely from the door. He wasn't even sure what age the man was, but he looked to be both younger and older than he himself was, though he was more than likely somewhere between Daichi's age and his own. Not that it mattered, he just didn't want to have him snooping around, which he got the feeling he was doing. You are being paranoid. A man I don't know comes into my house, insists on getting in and does it anyway uninvited. Is that paranoia?

He really wished he had started therapy already. In fact, he wished he had it tomorrow, and not next week. It had taken him such a long time because he'd spent a moment to find Temari and convince her to go to the room to watch the movie without ending up killing her brother, upon which he noticed Naruto wasn't where he should have been, which would preferably have been right next to him, or behind, if it couldn't be helped. He was less than pleased to realize he'd been left in the company of two adults he didn't particularly like, and even less when he heard the last thing the oldest man said.

'Naru, go watch the movie. I'll bring you all some chocolate later.' he opened another cabinet to retrieve a new cup for the shorter blond he couldn't help but feel he'd already seen before.

'But daddy-'

'Naruto.' The little blond stared at him, at the new person and then at Gaara's dad, before remembering he was a bad person and simply glaring at the latter, turned around and disappeared through the door that lead to her father's room. The other blond had looked after the kid that vanished behind the door and turned to Minato with apologetic smile.

'I'm sorry, I think I just wanted to act nice in advance for I came in so suddenly… I really wasn't expecting to meet Daichi with kids here.' Daichi let out of himself something that could sound like a very sarcastic grunt, indicating that he was the last person on earth who believed that. Yashamaru didn't seem to be fazed by that, but didn't miss it also.

'Oh please, Daichi-kun.' he said, smiling at him 'You know me very well. And don't stare at this knife like if you wanted to murder me, that's not nice.' Daichi only shot a dark glare toward him, then turned his head to the side.

'Just stay away from us.' Yashamaru smiled. 'I'd like two spoons of sugar please.' he said instead of answering. Oh, Daichi didn't change that much after all. Easy tease. Pity. The blond stilled in the process of pouring water into the cup, then turned to stare at the other man.

'...so it's me you wanted to talk with?' he asked, brows knitting with worry lines. Yashamaru let out a little merry laugh.

'Why yes, of course' he said, tucking one of the blond strands behind his ear 'Why else would I come here? I wanted to check out where Karura's children reside when Daichi is not home... it's good he stopped thinking so highly of himself and started leaving kids around the nice, warm houses of new uncles…'

With that, Yashamaru slid his dark blue eyes on the blond, like if he was making a mental scanning of his image. At the pause, the corners of his lips had budged almost invisibly, like if some nerve couldn't be properly caught well to not tick. Then he smiled again, as his facial remained frozen for a moment.

'…so bad it wasn't me. What did you tell him, Daichi? That I'm dead?' he said, looking at the saffron haired man. The other didn't move, looking at the floor like if he was having a brain fever and wanted to burn holes on the floor by it through his own eyes '…ahahaha, I was joking, joking of course. Sorry, I'm such a brute sometimes.'

Minato unconsciously leaned slightly away from the older blond, not knowing what to make of such an expression, but mostly, not knowing what to think about what was happening. If this man had had his in-law available all this time, why had he preferred to leave his kids completely alone instead of have this man take care of them? He had tried to ask Temari what was happening, but the girl was nervous enough without him trying to act as the Spanish inquisition and so he has let her be, though it was obvious that she at least knew who this man was and that her father didn't like him. Kankuro and Gaara, horrifyingly enough, only seemed to think he actually was their mother.

'…would you like some milk?' he asked, for lack of anything better to say as he deposited a mug with tea in front of him and gave the older man a questioning gaze regarding the used coffee cup. Yashamaru once again had smiled at him with gratefulness.

'Why yes, yes of course.' he said, getting up his cup toward the carton of milk with awaiting gesture. Daichi still kept glaring at the floor like if he could see the gates to another world there 'Ah, I love tea with milk, thank you.' Then a little moment of silence had emerged as the blonde, who as the only one seemed to not be aware of the uncomfortability of it sipped at his liquid.

'Ah, delicious, really delicious, you make a good tea.' he said, interrupting himself and getting another one like if he was playing in the good manners movie. Another moment of silence has passed. Daichi's hands has started paling around the knuckles. Yashamaru had slowly leaned on the chair, relaxing. The coat was now opened as he played with the scarf lightly, making himself uncover in the home-like heat.

'So, how are the kids?' he asked conversationally as nobody seemed to want to open their mouths 'Not causing any problems? Like kids their age?'

The blond had no idea if the older man meant or not such a comment, but what he had noticed was that his laptop was still there, still on, and barely covering his bottle of imipramine from the immediate camp of vision of the other man. Not that he had to hide them, not that they were a secret but… he really didn't want this man to ask about anything. He just wanted everyone gone right now from his house. And why wasn't the bastard of a father those kids had saying anything? He didn't seem to have a problem with trying to hit less than twenty minutes ago. With a small murmur, he retrieved the cup the saffron-haired man had in front of him -and the pills while at it-, turning around to wash the first and hide the latter.

And no, he wouldn't take part in this conversation if he could help it.

When no answer was provided, the man turned his head toward Daichi. But also then, no reaction was obtained – if shaking of the tightly clasped hands was missed. But as it was not a clear answer, it didn't count. Yashamaru's smile has dimmed as he took another sip of the warm liquid and leaned back on the chair with darkened eyes. So, if that was how it was going to be played…

'Child beater.' he whispered before his lips touched the brim of the glass. Daichi stood up so suddenly that the table had banged against the floor.

'I do not beat my children.' he said in a low, warning tone, looking at him with pale face. And yet, the eyes of his held more of image of cornered animal that didn't see any way out of the situation it was held in. Yashamaru's face didn't lit with smile again.

'What are you doing, do you have problems with pent up aggression?' he murmured around the cup, completely unfazed by the way the man was looking at him. Daichi flushed and sat down on the chair 'And prove it. I saw quite a mark on Gaara's forehead that wasn't there when I saw him last time.'

'That's not from beating!' shouted Daichi in the tone that already showed he was two steps from the precipice called 'losing the nerves' 'That's…!'

A pause. Yashamaru had slowly moved his cup from his lips.

'What.' he asked, this time without a shadow if glee on his face 'What is this.' Daichi looked at him for a moment with hopelessness, then turned to the side.

'That's not your concern.' Yashamaru had smiled once again and quieted down, sipping on his tea. The silence stretched once again. Minato was hearing the conversation, even though he wished he hadn't been. What scared him the most was that Mister Fire-axe, who didn't seem to have a problem with implying he'd toss him down a tenth floor was cowering like a rabbit in the snow. He flinched a bit at the question, or more at the accusation he himself had quite openly stated less than an hour ago, when things could have still more or less been considered normal, and didn't do or say anything to defend the man. No, Gaara's scar had been an accident, but after the way he had treated his child in front of him, the man better not expect any sort of defense on his part

The fact this new person was creepy and hit all panic buttons in his radar didn't make him any worse than the redhead was, and he really didn't know anything about the situation. For all he knew, this man could be trying to legally get the kids and be in a much better state to take care of them than the father, and that's why the other was so scared. Still- not his busyness. Without a word, he turned around and opened a new carton of milk, placing it to heat and started looking through the cabinets until he located the powdered cocoa.

Yashamaru blinked, watching the other blond. It was quite interesting as he could simply behave like that when a stranger was inside his house talking with an acquaintance that behaved like a ticking bomb. Very interesting. Then, he turned his eyes to the saffron haired man again and smiled to himself.

'I'm so glad I didn't give you those money after all.' he spoke up, making Daichi sprung his head like if it was on springs. Yes, exactly the spot.

'So you've got my mail after all!...' said Daichi with the tone that could be described both as horrified and disgusted 'You… you… why the hell did you not lend me any?'

Yashamaru had shrugged and looked up at the ceiling, still without losing the smile, seeming to wear the appearance of good uncle who heard the same old, touching song once again.

'I just thought you wouldn't know what to do with those money.' he said and let go of the cup, half filled with tea still 'They laid better on me anyway since we're at this point of… understanding.'

For a moment, the only thing that could be heard in room, was ticking of the clock and clinking of the cups on the counter. Daichi's breath has stopped.

'You…' he started, breathless 'You!...'

'Yes, Daichi-kun?' asked Yashamaru sweetly, looking toward him with expression overflowing with honey and sugar.

'They were not for me, you bastard!' howled the man, this time getting up so fiercely the chair landed on the floor 'You know very well how my situation looks like! They were for my kids!'

'…you wanted to say 'my kids'.' said Yashamaru with amused tone, getting up from the table 'Tut, tut… I guess someone is mixing the times… your kids are in past tense, I already won that trial.'

'You won nothing!' shouted Daichi, clenching his hands in tight fists out of helplessness. And then, Yashamaru started laughing. That was too much. 'You bastard!...'

'Wha- hey, hey, hey! Hands off!' shouted the man, backing away 'What, do you want to answer before judge for violating my personal space now? I don't have time to play in all your trials, idiot! Now if you excuse me, I'll go sit with my children now. It's been so long, I missed them.'

And with that, the face of the blond had melted into sweet, warm smile once again as he stepped away. Daichi slowly let his hands lose from the stop he made just before grabbing Yashamaru's throat. And then he just sat down on the chair, hiding his face in both of his palms. The happy squeals from another room sounded like a worst torture to his mind. There was only so much he could pretend not to hear. By the time the voices rose he had turned around and was staring at the pair of them with wide eyes. By the time the kid's father fell down on the chair Minato, who was closest to the door, put a hand out, effectively blocking the path out.

'Please, get out of my house.'

Yashamaru blinked, looking at him with slight surprise, but then he smiled.

'Of course.' he said with a tone that didn't seem to be as happy as his facial expression 'I'm really sorry we met under such inconvenient circumstances, I'm sure that if he wasn't there we would have had a nice chat and got to know each other better… but in that case, I'm off. Goodbye.' With that he had closed up the zip on his coat and turned the scarf around his face, looking at the other man who didn't move.

'But I will be back. I can't break those children hearts like you did after all, can I?' he asked more poisonously than sweetly and had turned toward the room where kids sat 'I'm going, we will see each other next time! Remember that I love you!' And with a smile toward Minato and a few quick steps he was gone. Daichi didn't even flinch. But after a moment running of quick steps could be heard as the little redhead entered the kitchen, looking around frantically, followed by Kankuro, who seemed to look more weirded out than scared.

'Mommy?' he asked, looking around the faces of Minato and Daichi, then ran out of the kitchen to run up to the door, observed by the brother. She wasn't there either. So he was back to the kitchen.

'Daddy?' he asked, clasping his hands on the black pants, trying to get the attention of the man who seemed to be completely frozen in his own time 'Daddy, where's mommy? Daddy? Daddy?...' Kankuro's face darkened and fell down as he slowly let go of the door-frame he was holding.

'Mommy is gone.' he muttered and turned around to go back to the room with TV. Temari was nowhere to be seen. Gaara looked after him with scared expression. Then he looked at his father once again, his eyes widening and his face slowly scrunching up in another painful realization. Mommy was gone.

'No…' he said, blinking and making the eyes glimmer as the hurt had hit in hard. 'I don't wanna… mommy!...'

Why was mommy gone? He didn't want her to be gone! She promised to watch movie with them!... Why was she gone when she finally came back?... He hiccupped, pushing his fists into his eyes who seemed to have never-ending streams of tears locked inside. But even as he started sobbing, Daichi didn't react. After a moment Gaara seemed to become aware of that. And the face he turned to him was not the one of hurt only.

'It's your fault!...' he half-shouted half-mumbled, glaring daggers at unmoving figure. When the man didn't react, he kicked him on the shin as hard as he could only to run away to the other room 'Mommyyy!...'

Daichi's shoulders has tensed in response. But beside that, he remained unmoving. Minato had gone after the older blond to make sure he left and that he wouldn't do anything… strange… to the lock. As it was, he merely waited for him to be out before locking the door behind him and going back in the kitchen just in time to see Gaara running down the hallway, waling for his mother, and again wondered why the hell did no one tell him that was a man and yes, maybe he was his uncle but definitely not his mother.

All of this was just too strange, and the lack of explanations didn't help at all. With a sigh, he went to his bag and fumbled around the contents until he located his cigarettes, then came back to the kitchen. He wasn't surprised to see that the milk he'd left to heat had spilled over and turned off the fire, with the gas leaking out and the other man giving no signs of having noticed or intending to do anything to change the situation. With a sigh, he turned off the gas, opened a window and set up to clean the mess.

'Gaara?' Naruto had followed his friend into his own room, and even though the movie had been really entertaining, he couldn't possibly leave his friend crying to himself and watch it on his own, especially when Temari was hiding somewhere in the house and Kankuro was sort of flopped in his dad's bed. And of course, Gaara was crying. Naruto didn't like it much but didn't take it too seriously either, Gaara cried a lot and rather easily, but what had happened today wasn't a small thing and he'd been really scared by the way the older boy had started screaming… and he didn't get why his dad was acting the way he had, only knew that he was looking everywhere at the same time like before and that was never a good thing. And now this guy with eyes like Temari came and made things more confusing.

The redhead didn't move from the corner he was sitting in, hugging the teddy tightly to himself and hiccupping to himself in a manner that showed he was actually having hardships on breathing between first and second sob. His voice was already overused and raspy. He noticed Naruto, that was signed by move of his green-pinkish eyes (as whites has completely roughened due overuse of crying) but beside that he didn't call back to him, move or even stop rocking himself like if the toy in his hand was his own baby.

The sole idea of lost was too hard to bear and everything else just couldn't get squeezed onto his arms already. So it moved out and waited for him to calm down and start noticing other things. But as far as it went, he didn't intent on making any vacancies for other thoughts in his mind anytime soon. The cry he continued to let out was void of meaning.

'Gaara…' The little blond's voice was almost a whine, but as his call had no result, he found the edge of the blankets and crawled under them as well. It was really stuffy and had that unpleasant smell that only blankets where little kids have cried a lot seemed to hold, but he still moved all the way until he found the redhead and hugged him tight like he did with his daddy when he got like this. 'It's okay. It's going to be okay.'

The redhead only looked at him, still showing that he noticed him, but then, he curled into himself more, actually getting further away from the blond and continued crying. Nothing is going to be okay. He thought so until now. And now everything was wrong. So nothing was going to be okay.

Naruto's face fell, now really not knowing what to do. His daddy usually clung to him when he was close enough, not tried to move away. And Now Gaara had first ignored him and now didn't seem to want to be touched by him anymore, and if he didn't… Then he didn't know what to do to make him feel better.

'…are you angry at me?' he asked quietly, voice saddening.

The redhead once again shot acknowledging glance toward the blond, but even then he didn't stop crying or rocking himself. Naruto was wrong and thinking wrong and he shouldn't think like that but now he didn't quite have strength to explain it to him. It was too complicated. Everything seemed to be too complicated now. 'I want to mommy.' He said in a raspy tone, in-between two other sobs, telling him by that it wasn't anyone's fault actually and especially not Naruto's – it was only world that was bad and awful place. But if the blonde understood that, was left questionable.

Naruto's expression fell at that, because he knew there was nothing he could do about it.

'I miss my mommy too, sometimes.' A lot of times, actually, but he couldn't say it out loud… It would make his daddy sad.

Gaara had looked at him for a moment then nodded his head slightly. He didn't know what has happened to Naruto's mommy, but it was probably something bad too. He never got to see her around. And then, he moved a bit to hold the blonde against him, just like he did with plushie. And then he continued crying.

#+#+#+#+#+#

By the time Minato was done, and when he judged the ambience to be clear enough, he set a new saucepan to boil on low, then sat across the older man on the small table. He didn't look at him as fished a cigarette, lit it up and took a drag, then pushed the package and lighter across the table in clear invitation. He still wasn't looking at him when finally spoke up.

'Would you please tell me why did that man come here?'

The man had tensed up more for a moment, then finally, after all that time, had moved his hands from his face. He was looking at least five years older if not ten. Or at least like if he was ran over with the truck, though a pentagon's tank probably wouldn't make a lot of difference here.

'I don't know.' he said in a tone so low it was almost deafened by the quiet hissing of the gas on which the milk was boiling. 'I told you I didn't give him the… address…'

He seemed to stop for a moment to reach for the cigarette, like if talking and taking objects were too hard to handle them both at the same time. And then he cursed quietly as the package almost slipped out of his hands. When he finally took the one cigarette, it shook so much in his hands it landed on the floor before it even reached out his mouth. Daichi's face has scrunched in a painful grimace, like if the stick hitting the floor had hit him in the guts.

'I'm sorry for him' he said, bending down. When he rose up, he had the white cigarette hanging listlessly from his lower lip, like if it was glued on saliva to it. 'And I'm sorry you had to endure all this scene. If I knew…' The lighter stayed in his hand, in the middle of litting as he frowned and relaxed, slowly putting it down. The cigarette remained unlit. '...I doubt he won't come back.' he spoke quietly.

Minato stared at the older man, completely understanding what the other was feeling and said nothing as he waited for the other to calm back down. At least he seemed to be past his phase of aggression. He debated what to do. In one hand, he didn't really want to talk to him more than necessary, not after all that had happened today and especially, all the man had done to him. In another, this man was two steps away from doing something drastic, crashing on their way back of their homes being the least of those problems.

But more than anything else, he remembered how he himself felt when he'd gotten those papers, or even worse, when he'd had to accept to submit himself to a psychological exam that at the time he was terrified would land him head first into a room with padded walls and hearing Naruto crying for him while Jiraiya-sensei took him back to his department. That had been probably the single most awful moment of his life, second only to when it finally dawned to him that he'd never have Kushina next to him again. It had felt like if he were sinking into toxic tar.

'… he was lying, you know.'

Daichi rose his head quickly, but looked at Minato like if he couldn't recognize whom he was and when was the last time he had seen him. Then, he frowned. What was he saying?...

'Was he?' he asked, then hunched over, putting the lighter on a table and falling again in the position of thinker, catching his forehead with one of the hands. 'No, he wasn't. That bastard is always saying things he is sure of. He is going to take kids away…' And then, like if the idea had only just now hit him with the full meaning, he tensed up, like if he was waiting for a blow to come and grinded his teeth in stress. He had no idea what to do. Completely. Null.

Minato stared at him, taking another nervous drag of the cigarette. He cast the saucepan a look, but the milk wasn't boiling yet, so…

'If he had won the trial, he'd be at your house with officers to take the kids.' the blond continued, reaching with a hand to clasp one of the elongated beads in his necklace and starting to run it through the silver band that held it to his neck. 'You would have gotten some court order, some information about when you could get an appeal and a set of schedule to meet them.'

And maybe that wasn't the happiest of thoughts to share right now, but that was also true.

'Coming here doesn't make sense from a legal stand point. I'm just the father of one of your kid's schoolmates and save for Gaara, I've taken care of them a grand total of two times.' he did that thing with the necklace again, running it quickly through the chain. 'Family court always favors the biological parent first.' And would it be really such a good thing for the kids in this case…? His eyes went down to the table, staring at the cup the blonde man had used, still filled with a bit of tea with milk '…he did it to isolate you so you would get scared and do something drastic.' And right now, the man did look like if he would.

The man had for a moment looked like if all words has bounced off from his brain and flew away to who knows where, unused. But then he grimaced and rose up on the chair.

'You don't understand.' he said, looking at him with pain stricken eyes, getting out the cigarette from his mouth and playing with it in his hands 'You don't know anything…'

And with that thought he trailed off, looking at the blond with a frown that signified the sudden realization that maybe he shouldn't have said that and that maybe he didn't really trust him, or anyone, at all. Then he lowered his eyelids and looked down.

'Now it's only the matter of time.'

Minato's eyebrows rose slightly. He wasn't angry right now, or even scared, just…. Really uncomfortable and tired of the situation.

'Really? Because that's what happened to me.'

He put out his cigarette in the cup of tea in front of him, a small, childish part enjoying it despite the fact the other blond wasn't there to witness it, and then reached for the package of cigarettes to fiddle with the contents. Did he want to explain to this man what it was to have police take your own child and look at you as if you were scum while the kid cried hysterically? No, he didn't. He didn't want to talk about how he'd called his boss in a panic for lack of anything better to do, or how lucky he had been the man had sent him that lawyer, or anything that had happened after. Deciding against taking another cigarette, he looked around the dishes for the kid's cups and started mixing the cocoa with the warmed milk, not looking at the older man.

The other man stared at him with raised eyebrows. Really?... Was that the reason of him being away also?... Could it be connected to that twisted past he had slipped away no more than at least hour ago? Daichi had slowly moved his head to the side. It was already getting dark outside.

'He hates me for letting their mother die.' he blurted out of sudden, not moving his dimmed eyes from the window 'He said he will do everything to take them away as the last link to Karura… that's my dead wife's name.'

'…'Celestial Eagle'?' Minato didn't look away from what he was doing, as id placing two spoonfuls of powdered cocoa and adding hot milk were a particularly complicated operation. 'That's a strange name for a woman.' He stirred the content of the cups quickly, before leaving them to cool slightly on the counter. 'Would it be too intrusive if I asked what happened to her?'

Daichi had smiled lightly under his nose. Yet another person was repenting to that Hindu title. They were almost right, only they were completely wrong and he was one of a few who actually knew how it was supposed to be written and read. But since the real meaning wasn't very pretty, he decided to not point at Minato's mistake. Who liked to be called 'a demon who adds to the flow of hatred'? And yes, her parents were just as charming as their ideas. But that would be too much to speak about, even to himself. He didn't like remembering that part of his life, so he only glanced back to the blond for a moment, then moved his eyes again to the glass and a lonely lamp standing outside.

'She died when Gaara was about to reach his second birthday.' he said in the plainest, most cut version he thought up long time ago and repeated every time someone asked him like a poem – exactly with the same dull reciting tone 'I'd like to say it was a quick and painless death, like an airplane's crash or maybe a bullet to the head… but actually, it lasted for longer than a year. Or maybe even more...'

He paused, frowning at the memory of the day he noticed that the blood on sheets was not where the hips were supposed to be, but around the area of head and mouth. And that when he started counting days, that little cold with cough she was having was not only a few days but also a few weeks… and weeks that could be easily counted in months. He smiled bitterly.

'She was a fragile woman, that kind of you read in old books of XIX century.' he muttered quietly 'It's hard to notice tuberculosis on such people.'

Minato finally turned to look at the older man, even though he still wasn't looking at him.

'I'm sorry.' He said softly. And he was… No one but him knew better what I was like to loss someone that close to you… Not to mention the facts he had three kids to look after and was in a less than savory economical position. Did he really need to ask if that had added to the sickness? He doubted it. Temari had to have been at least four… Old enough to recognize her, if her reaction was any clue. Kankuro apparently wasn't. As for Gaara… sometimes he wondered if it hadn't been a good thing that Naruto had nothing but photos left from Kushina. Photos and… boxes. That he never dared touch. Sometimes he really wanted to tell him about how he'd met her or the things they'd done before they had him, but in the end he couldn't even get to do it because it hurt too much to know he would never have that, that neither of them would. Sometimes he was actually glad that Kushina had died then, because if Naruto had actually known what it was like to have her in his life, Minato wouldn't stand a chance to replace her and make him happy.

Daichi had finally left the window alone and looked at his hands where the cigarette kept on being rolled at. At now, in three pieces already and scrunched like little candies with pure nicotine.

'You don't have to be.' he said with resigned smiled, tearing the white paper on one of the objects 'It's been long time ago and had been already covered in dust and new grass. All I care about are mine and her kids.'

With that, his forehead gained once again a straight line, even if his lips still held a not very happy smile.

'I really do care about them.' he muttered with pressure, almost like if he wanted to convince himself he did 'I really do.' They were all he had left. Was that really so strange? Then he stopped, seeing how the brown confetti started dirtying the floor. He laid the off on the table. 'But you probably know how it is if you say you've been here before.'

Minato stared at the small pile of dried tobacco align from the cancer stick without much interest- he had a linoleum floor after all.

'…I suppose you must do.' he said blandly, giving another stir at the chocolate without looking at the man and obviously not saying what he was really thinking. Better to leave it there. 'I'm going to take this to the kids. Do you want to…?' he made a gesture towards the tray, asking if he wanted to come with him. Daichi looked at the tray, then for a moment wanted to protest, not feeling strong enough yet to bear with all that was probably going now through his kids' minds, but then – if not now, then when? The whole revelation probably needed to be broken down on the most soon time possible until some other strange ideas would pop out from them. He nodded shortly and got up from the chair, wiping his hands against each other from the brown pieces. Now his hands smelled a bit like those cancer sticks. But it didn't really matter.

Well... there was that, at least. Picking the tray, he waited for the man to pass first, leaving to him the decision of who to tend to, first. From all he knew, Gaara and Naruto seemed to be in his son's room, if the soft, tired sobs were any indication. Kankuro and Temari probably were in his own room, watching the movie or... else. Who knew what state those two were in.

The first steps lead them to the room with television on. Daichi, not wanting to face the hysteria of the redhead first as he always thought those things should have been waited through decided to give the kid a bit more time to calm himself down. And it was happening, as far as he heard. He couldn't measure too well. His senses went too numb from what's had happened to him today. He was hungry, soaked, overworked, tired and attacked by the blond in the middle of big stress, just to be put through one of Gaara's moods and then, sudden coming of Yashamaru. Actually, all he wanted to was fall down on his face right in the spot where he was standing on. He didn't have any idea how his feet kept moving. They just did.

And they almost disappointed him too, when on the way to the TV room a very frightened blond something caught him by his knees and held tightly to the point of tripping them both. At first he thought it was Naruto, but on the second glance it came out it was Temari. Her eyes had been all puffy and red, though she didn't seem to be crying that hard since her face was not soaking his pants. Or maybe she just knew how to wipe it. He didn't want to check the sleeves of her long sleeved t-shirt.

'Daddy!...' she muttered with fright he hadn't heard in her from long time ago. With a heavy crack in his spine, he leaned down, massaging her back. She seemed to be glued to his leg now 'I don't want to go to uncle!... Big bro and Gaara are acting strange around him, I don't wanna!...'

Daichi frowned, stroking the hair between the ponytails. They seemed to be more messed up than always. How did she know about this whole situation?... He could barely tell, but it seemed that she knew just from the thin air, even if he didn't even tell the kids what could be awaiting them in the future. His dead wife called that 'women's sixth sense'. He never understood what she was talking about.

'You're not going anywhere.' he muttered, hiding her in a hug for a moment, then pointing at Minato. 'Here, Mr. Uzumaki made something warm and sweet-'

'Daddy, I don't wanna!...' she squeaked in the strained voice, clasping her hands in his pants tightly. With a sigh, he hugged more firmly and held for longer than it was needed. For her, or maybe for him himself. He didn't know, really, but he felt better when he could feel he had something to lean on in this emptiness he was drowning. Even if the land he stood upon was completely dependent on him.

'You're not going anywhere.' he muttered bitterly. His throat started stinging him in this awful, suffocating scratches.

'Promise?' asked the girl, not even once glancing at Minato or the tray. It was hard to do that as it didn't even exist in her mind now. Daichi nodded quietly.

'Promise.'

'Kankuro-silly and Gaara too?' she asked again, just to be sure. Daichi nodded again, swallowing the heaviness quickly.

'They're not going anywhere also.' he added. The girl had finally loosened her hold.

'I'm happy then.' she said and smiled at him with that special smile of hers. He smiled back tiredly and stroked her hair just as he did with boys, pointing at tray. She looked at it also, but instead of going for the cup of cocoa, she leaned up quickly and muttered those few lovely words he was always ashamed to hear. Then, with a blush like if it was a confession of pervert at least, she ran up toward Minato and hid behind him, pushing him a little harshly, so for a moment he watched for the tray actually landing at his head. But how could he scold her at that point? He was the one at fault anyway. With a light cough, he got up from his knees and brushed his hands.

'Let's move on.' he said, with completely neutral face. 'Or the drinks are going to freeze.'

And nobody wanted that, right?

Minato was still very confused about the whole situation, and Temari's fear didn't add well to the way her father had been acting since that man had made act of presence, but there wasn't much he could do about it right now. He was dying for curiosity, but at the same time he was afraid of what he could learn about it, and the danger that might bring him and Naruto. It was mere luck and a lot of concentration that saved the cups after the girl scrambled after him, and he was again surprised by the fact they felt so comfortable with him to do that. All of his life Minato had been terrified of kids, and had never been close enough to one until Naruto. And Gaara was the first one he had extensive contact with, but he did see him almost daily. Temari and Kankuro, he'd only seen a couple times. The idea that maybe he was a nice person and kids might like him didn't even cross his mind.

He smiled at the girl either way took the chance to leave the tray over a box that was filled with books, the flat surface stable enough to hold the weight easily. "Here,' he passed the girl hers first, considering she was the closest, giving the older man some time to deal with his older son. Naruto seemed to be taking care of Gaara, as usual, the odd thing was that he could swear he could hear him saying things in Konoha dialect… The girl took the cup with pleasure, and still blushing a little had leaned over his leg to look at what was happening in other part of the room. No comments came from her, though, and that was simply because she had her mouth stuck to the cup of sweetish drink.

Daichi walked up to the other side of the space. Kankuro still sat on the sofa, watching the screen, even if the movie had ended and the vhs stopped, showing some political facts, which couldn't be very interesting for a kid who was enjoying 'Peter Pan' more than any newspaper he managed to bring home. It seemed almost like if he decided to take the TV on and see who could take more of him sitting at the place – his glare could make feel the giant tiny and the crossed arms reminded him so much of his own posture. He crouched in front of him, hiding the screen, but the brunet didn't flinch even a bit.

'Kankuro.' he said in a calm, patient tone, even if all he wanted to do was hitting him on the head for what he saw the kid did in the hall 'Uncle Yashamaru is gone.'

'I know.' said Kankuro rudely with careless tone, not even glancing at him. Daichi bit the curse and swallowed with a breath. He readjusted his legs as it seemed they were not giving him enough of a good background against the floor.

'And you know that's uncle Yashamaru.' he muttered, touching the kid's forearms to make the runaway impossible 'And not mother, right?'

Kankuro shrugged, turning his eyes to his own knees this time. He seemed to be agreeing, but yet, completely closed. Daichi knew that posture – it was the play of a 'deaf stone' which you could talk to and talk, and he knew better anyway. A very annoying thing when it came to explaining things that unexplained could make do harm to the child. He leaned forward.

'I'm serious, Kankuro.' he muttered, biting the words at the ends 'That was not your mother. It was Yashamaru, her twin brother. You must acknowledge that. Tell me you know it's your uncle and not your-'Daichi hesitated. Kankuro finally looked at him with a glare that even, if it was coming from eyes his own DNA formed, still had the big crushing strength in them. Kankuro usually didn't use that, mostly never. But when he did…

…he felt like if he was the most ugly and disgusting thing on earth, the source of all problems that deserved only the purest hate that came from that small, still, but human heart. He tightened his hold. 'Kankuro, I'm your father-'

'This hurts.' said Kankuro with the same cold, rude tone. Immediately he let go, even before he understood what he was doing.

'Listen to me when I-' he started. Kankuro shrugged again and pushed at his arms, making them go away.

'Whatever.' he said with careless tone 'I'll just go drink my milk and be quiet. That's all you want, right?' And with that he hopped down from the sofa and walked up to Minato, actually not even looking at him and standing near Temari. The girl had finally tore her lips from her cup.

'You're an idiot.' she said simply. Without a one glance, Kankuro bared his teeth and pushed her so hard she fell down on the floor, letting go of the cup. The cacao soaked the tiles with small stain.

'Shut up, bimbette.' he muttered and walked away, even despite the gasp that the girl gave him. Daichi immediately rose up n his legs.

'What the hell was that?' he shouted. Kankuro didn't even glance as he walked away to another room 'Get back here!'

But he didn't. Daichi wanted to run after him, but seriously, making another scene seemed to be out of range of his strength. It was hearable in his voice and that was probably why Kankuro ignored him so openly. He tried again.

'I said get back here and apologize to your sister!...' But all that answered his demand was silence.

'Temari!' Minato immediately was next to the girl, pulling her away from the liquid that really was more warm than anything else, but that he seemed to treat as if it were molten lava if the haste he used to pull her away from the spill was any clue. 'Are you okay, did you get burned?'

'No.' said Temari with unhappy face 'The shirt is all dirty...'

Minato relaxed and smiled lightly at the answer.

'Don't worry, I'll wash it later.' he helped her up. 'The only thing that matters is if you didn't get hurt. Your clothes will be dry in another few minutes anyway.'

He shot the older man a worried glance, fearing he would go and try to do something like that had happened before the strange blonde showed up to Kankuro this time.

'Should I go make sure he is okay…?'

Daichi looked at him for a moment like if he was drunk and couldn't understand where was the North the blond was asking him about, but then he just shrugged helplessly and showed him the room where the brown-haired kid was sitting with a lifeless flap of an arm.

'You can try if you want…' he said, but he already knew that if anything, it will only make the kid lock up tighter in himself. But maybe the blond knew something about this he didn't. He was too tired to try to go and push at the kid at the moment anyway. The blond hesitated for a moment.

'…why don't you go make some more coffee?' he asked softly. The man didn't seem like if he would be able to deal with another similar reaction.

The man stared at him for a moment, but then just nodded and walked away to the kitchen. Temari, indecisive, looked after him, but then just decided to stick to the blond. As far as she knew, the state her father was in now needed 'alone time' the most.

'Sorry about him.' she said, walking up to the man 'But bro is just stupid like that. He will grow out of this.'

Minato nodded absently, his eyes only leaving the kid's father once he crossed the kitchen door, after which he looked down at the little girl with a small smile.

'I understand… but don't tease him right now, okay? Most of the time people know they did wrong, but telling it to them straight away only makes them get mad and stubborn.' Huh. Sounded familiar? 'Wait here a moment, okay?' he gestured to the bed. 'You can watch whatever you want.'

Thankfully, all channels that shouldn't be seen were safely locked. He waited a moment to let the girl know how to use the TV remote (which, like all children magically seemed to do, apparently learnt better than him in less than thirty seconds) before going to look for the younger brunet.

'Kankuro…?'

The brunet had gone to one of the rooms he still didn't really know what to do of, so it mostly was a mess of stuff he still hadn't figured if he should unpack or just leave there. Not much room to move around, and much less to do anything in. He thought about trying to hug him, but after what had happened, he didn't think it to be a good idea. Kankuro wasn't Gaara, who welcomed almost any sort of affectionate thought. He just lowered himself to the kid's height, leaving some space between them.

'Are you okay?'

Kankuro didn't answer, glaring at the box in front of him like if Minato was invisible, giving off the same stubborn gaze and identical posture of crossed arms. Seeing that the blond was not letting go of the topic, he just shrugged and kept on drilling the hole in the object seen barely above the Minato's left shoulder. The blond gave a look over his shoulder, as if to make sure what Kankuro was looking at was something real, then turned back at him with a worried glance.

'Kankuro… who was that man?' he asked very softly, looking again over his shoulder. He didn't want either the boy's father or his own son to listen to this. 'Is…is he dangerous?'

Kankuro tossed the blond a hateful glance and hunched down even lower, actually looking at the floor now.

'Go away.' he muttered. He was not going to answer any of those smart adult questions. Temari could say what she wanted but he knew he wasn't as stupid as she thought he was.

'Kankuro… please.' Minato's voice was just as soft as before, but more pleading. 'I've had problems before and I really can't have them again. Last time I had to leave my country because of it. I need to know if that man might be dangerous to Naruto.'

In response, Kankuro covered both of his ears with both of his hands, making himself curl even more, gaping at the floor with even more stubborn expression. Now he could see only the tips of his own shoes.

'Go away!' he repeated with pressure, sealing his hearing as well as he could. He was not listening to this.

'…' gently, Minato reached for the small brunet and pushed his hands down from his ears, wrapping his arms lightly around the small shoulders in the process.. 'Okay… let's not talk about this anymore? I didn't mean to upset you, I'm sorry.'

The boy let the blond hug him, but his own hands stayed loose. The muscles on his tensed back had relaxed, but only in tiny bit as he leaned against the man in the mimic of deprived from will puppet. The expression Minato couldn't see still kept at glaring at the invisible spot behind the blond's shoulder with even more furrowed eyebrows. The silent lips remained tightly shut. Whatever the man wanted to do to him with that hug he was allowing only because he knew he didn't stand a chance with the strength of someone twice or maybe even thrice as big as him. Minato was sure Kushina would have known what to do in this situation. He was sure anyone in this world would know to do, absolutely anyone who wasn't him.

'…okay.' Minato didn't let go, but at the lack of answer, he leaned down and picked the small body up. 'This room is a mess. Your sister is in the room watching TV, but if you don't want to talk with her, you can borrow my laptop and play with it.'

Kankuro looked up at the blond and then just shrugged, indicating clearly he didn't really care about the offer. With that, he remained silent and unmoving. At least he wasn't being pushed away… It was at this moment that Minato remembered that the boy's father was in the kitchen, where his laptop had been left. And he didn't think leaving Kankuro with his sister would be a good idea right now.

Keeping the boy on his arms, he walked to the living room, absently removing a small blue pen drive from the top of a library. He left the brunet in the couch, and carefully walked to the kitchen. He also was sure anyone else in this world would have been able to say something to the wreck of a man sitting in the small table, but unfortunately, he was only Namikaze Minato, kind of ruining things. So all he managed was to unplug the laptop and mutter a vague 'I'll be back' before retreating to connect it for the middle Sabaku to play with, after saving the data he needed in the device.

It took him a moment to do that, and another to find a web page for games, after which he left the boy to his devices to go get one of the remaining mugs to him on the side table. Kankuro didn't protest, only stared at the screen like at new kind of animal in ZOO and stayed in position he was left in after Minato left. Naruto's room was quiet now, save for the occasional wet sniff and the soft drone of his son's voice. He couldn't really make out all of the words, but he recognized that at least a good deal of them were from Konoha. It wasn't rare for the little blonde to talk on his natal language whenever they were alone, but when he was with other kids he only spoke in Sunanian. He'd learnt it fast enough once he started kinder, so he saw no reason for him to do it. It was a little strange, but so far no one had complained so…

'Kids?' The voices from under the blankets immediately quieted. 'I made some chocolate for you. I'm leaving it here. Don't drink it in bed, Naru.'

'Okay…' with a pat over an unidentifiable head, he left that room again and returned to the kitchen.

The redhead didn't react beside quieting down. The cups that were left on the table hadn't entertained him a bit and he didn't want to reach for them. At that, he just kept on holding Naruto against himself and breathed heavily through his stuffed nose.


	16. 16: Puppies

Daichi in the kitchen seemed to have had only just started drinking on his coffee which was the highest time for it as it as semi-warm now. But it didn't make much difference for him. The cup swirled in his hands slowly, making the smug lines on the top of the surface swirl into a nice shape of a snail's shell.

'…I can't take it anymore.' he muttered quietly in a dead tone when Minato had finally came to the kitchen for the second time. 'I can't.'

Minato stopped at the words, looking at the hallway, and the brunet's still form in the couch. He slowly closed the door to block him from hearing it. Moving to the table, he considered taking another coffee and instead decided to get a new cigarette. He was going to quit soon. Seriously. With a weary glance at the older man, he sat down in front of him.

'It's strange.' the blond said after several seconds. 'It's strange, what you are doing… Can you tell me what's going on?'

Daichi had shrugged with much similarity to what his second son did.

'I work.' he said with the same listless tone 'I send kids to school. I get them back. I feed them. I buy them things, I make them go to sleep early and keep them away from pointy things…'

The hands around the cup had stopped, but the swirling of the liquid continued. Gently, almost invisibly, and yet, still… Daichi couldn't see himself in the reflection of the cup, but watched the coffee like if he could. At least he had his eyes held somewhere where nobody was staring back.

'And yet, it all goes wrong.' he continued, not leaving his eyes off the dish 'I…'

He worked but he didn't earn money. He sent them to school but they arrived late. He got them back but he couldn't be on time. He fed them making them starve and made them wear his clothes as he was out of anything else he could make them wear. He laid them to sleep and they stayed up for whole night crying after things he couldn't give them and at the lack of sharp objects one kid landed in hospital with head split open. Everything went wrong. The waxy fingers gripped the cup tighter, maybe even a little too tight. But the glass took the pressure without protesting.

'I don't know.' he muttered feverishly, staring at his hands and not seeing them anymore. 'I don't know. I do everything to survive. But where's the life in that survival? I don't know.' He had no idea what he was doing anymore. He relaxed his grip on the mug slowly.

'I'm just doing the right thing.' he said finally. Then he rose his clouded eyes at Minato and smiled hopelessly 'I don't know what I'm doing anymore.'

Minato tried to hold the desperate stare being aimed at him, but he couldn't. It hurt too much. It reminded him of too many things he didn't want to dig up or face again, not when he was finally getting past them.

'… I don't know what to think of you.' he said slowly, removing the cylinder from his mouth and expelling the words in a small cloud of smoke, tasting its bitterness and rolling it on his tongue. 'Sometimes you act like a nice person. You have good attitudes and seem to do the right things. You say you care for those kids, and they want to be with you. I think they have good reasons… I want to think they have good reasons, but I don't know. I want to think you are a good person, but then that-' he pointed at the hallway, as if the whole situation he had created for his son were a physical location that could be located merely by pointing to the door.

'You can't do that kind of things anymore. Not because your kids will be taken from you-' Hadn't the blond man said he had it taped? God. How could he explain that to a social worker? To a family court? '-but because if you do things like that, then it would be good for them to be taken away.'

He was out of line and he was getting too personal but he couldn't help it.

'Do you have any excuse, any explanation for what you did to Gaara? He will forgive you, because he loves you and he'd probably forgive anything from you, but do you think he's ever going to forget it?' he nearly bit on the filter of the cigarette from sheer stress, forcing himself to stop when he felt the paper starting to tear. '…one doesn't forget that kind of things. Ever.' he thought of adding that he didn't think the older man ever would, either, but didn't think it was necessary.

During the talk the opened face of the other man slowly closed like a daily flower that was shunned by overcoming darkness and quietly dulled. In the end, it just hung lowly, covered by natural shadows of the face, as the cup in the hands moved slowly, making the coffee splotch against the walls of the mug regularly.

'He is not supposed to forget.' he muttered with hushed, dull tone 'Honor thy father and mother and respect them. I don't care if he won't like that memory. He has to remember that.'

Then he clenched his fingers over the cup so hardly it crunched from the pressure. His face darkened more.

'Would you rather have me doing it the way I had it done to me? I'm a good, merciful…' The cup landed on the table with a clunk so loud it made the things on it jump up for at least a centimeter up. The brownish substance splashed around in irregular blotch '…the best goddamned father they could ever had, and they won't have the other one! You hear me? Don't criticize me!… Just stick to your own kid!...'

The last words were shouted with shrill sputter, showing that physically on his ends if the shaking pupils in the pale face and nervously flexing muscles weren't any indication. He didn't really know what he was speaking about anymore. He just felt cornered again and needed he had to bite back at everything that was pushing against him. He would stand up but he had simply no strength to do it. 'Why are you judging me?...' he hissed, leaning over the table, staining his clothes with the lukewarm coffee and obviously not noticing it 'Why are you judging me when you weren't there to help when it was the worst?... You couldn't be there so you have no right to speak, shut up!...'

With that he let go of the cup and turned to the other side holding onto his wetted sweater with disgust. He would walk away. But he simply had no more strength to it. Everyone spoke like if they knew better, but nobody was smart enough to trade places. Of course he would be more understanding and loving and caring if he had more wealth, power and goodies. It was easier to not shout at the kid when you weren't hungry and stressed out. But when you had to keep on surviving there was no place for palliatives.

At the attitude, more than the words, the younger man drew back on his chair like an animal expecting a blow, eyes narrowed into an accusing look.

'You had it worse, that's your excuse?' The blond said lowly despite the threatening aura of the older man and the alarm bells prickling at the sensible skin in the back of his neck. 'What you did was incoherent and completely blown out of proportion, and you admitted it so yourself. You want to teach your kids to respect you, well, that has nothing bad or wrong about it, but using them as an outlet because you can't take it out on other people is low and cowardly. For someone who worries about his son having hysterical fits, you certainly don't shy from provoking them yourself whenever you feel like it. If that man bring that tape to court and you are asked what caused that kind of wailing, what are you gonna say? 'Oh, he said he wanted to stay in another house instead of with me and it really hurt my feelings'? Can you even explain that kind of attitude?'

#+#+#+#+#+#

The little blond waited for his dad to leave the room. Then waited some more while Gaara clutched him to his chest, feeling how warm and stuffy it really was under the blankets. When that simply became too much, finally pulled away, kicking and pushing the blankets away and making a mess on the bed, but also releasing the pair from it's hardly breathable confines. The fresh air was so good for a moment all Naruto did was enjoy being able to properly breathe it, but then the cerulean eyes went back to the red-haired person next to him, and Naruto could only stare.

'Gaara…' he breathed, his mouth twitching up into a smile, yet eyebrows burrowed in concern. 'You are all pink.' Gaara was, either because of natural complexion or simply his poor sleeping habits, a very pale person. Naruto had noticed that when he'd first gotten here, but there were a lot of other people with skin like that here, like the Hyuugas, the creepy bug kid, Sakura-chan and ever that idiot Sasuke. Gaara was just extra pale. Ginetix, his dad had said, which apparently meant that what place you lived changed stuff about how you looked. That had made Naruto wonder if his daddy had lived here before, because he was just as pale as Sasuke's mom, but his dad just laughed it off and told him that was because he didn't spend too much time outside. And besides, the stuff they used from his mom to make him made him that skin color. Either way, with the overly warm atmosphere under the blankets and the way he had been crying, Gaara's whole face was a sort of glowing pink, with especially bright blotches under the reddened eyes and on the cheeks.

'You look cute.' the blond said, smiling lightly and using a sleeve to pat the wet cheeks lightly and dry them.

At that, Gaara made a saddened face and grabbed Naruto into another hug, breathing into the fresh air with irregular gasps. He didn't think he looked cute, but that didn't seem to be important. He just felt bad and needed to build a guarding fortress. And having teddy and Naruto close seemed to be doing the thing. Just to slow his not slowing down quickly beating heart he started rocking again with them all, just to even the unease feeling out. He swallowed, the breathed.

'Thanks.' he muttered quietly.

At that Naruto giggled quietly and wrapped his arms around the other's shoulders, squeezing back with more force than the younger boy was using and rocking back just as strongly. Predictably, that caused the both of them to fall on the bed again three rocks in, only Naruto didn't stop at that and started rolling on the bed with the redhead still clutched securely to his chest.

In the kitchen, Daichi felt like if something big, slimy and disgusting started crawling down his throat. One creature. Two. Three. And then all of them, five at once, seven, making his stomach drop cold with heaviness. He felt like vomiting. He couldn't listen to it, but he couldn't speak because he knew he would break his throat on another shout. He closed his fists over the material so tight the knuckles on both hands turned white. One of his legs started jumping in nervous tick with quick tapping against the floor. He felt like choking the man with bare hands. To not listen to this. To not answer to those questions. To stop the guilt that was making him feel like if he would never be able to get up from his knees. …nine, ten… breaking point…

Break.

'Excuse me.' he muttered in the quietest of voice and scrambled away from the table, almost tripping on his own legs, only to get inside a bathroom that wasn't his. He looked around with wild eyes, not knowing what he was searching for. But he searched. Not here… not here… this also not… There. He came down between the sink and the toilet seat to sit on the cold tiles and curled his knees up to himself, like a kid he was once upon a time, ages ago. But now he felt lost like one, so he had an excuse, excuse… excuse…

He hadn't got any excuse. Not time. No ways out. And not strength to hold it in himself until he could have found the time and place for that… somewhere… tomorrow… it was too late. With a grit of his teeth, he covered his eyes with one of his hands and, while clenching with other at his pants, he did everything, everything he could to cry the most silent way it was possible. If there are any gods… help.

When the man suddenly got up, Minato's eyes immediately went to the table to see what he could use to knock him out, but with the laptop removed, the only thing he had available were the coffee cups themselves, hardly anything worthy of considering. Apparently he had overreacted in his need to defend himself –again - because all the older man did was mutter something that in his panic he didn't even hear and disappear down the hallway. He remained in that position a moment or two, before quickly scrambling up himself, his mouth suddenly on his throat, but no… Naruto was okay. He risked a peek into the room and he seemed to be wrestling with the little redhead.

Then…? He checked on both older kids, and they were fine and on their own, too. He hadn't heard the door being opened. His eyes went to the last door in the hallway, the only one that looked more like the front door than the ones to the bedrooms and closets. He was halfway there when he heard a muffled sound in the bathroom. With a nervous sigh, he went back to the kitchen and started washing the cup that blond man had used.

The redhead rolled with Naruto, but it wasn't anything pleasant for him. Actually, it was disturbing his state, making him also the implying unease. After a few rolls with a disapproving squeak he pushed Naruto away and curled into the plush he was holding. He didn't want to play. He wanted to be somewhere else. In another situation. With mommy. With the idea, his face dropped even more, making him gasp on the air once again. He didn't want to cry again. Crying hurt his throat. But!...

'Mommy!...' he squeaked hoarsely and hid his face into the plushie once again. It hurt to cry. But he cried.

'Aw, Gaara…' reaching for the younger boy, Naruto yanked him up and hugged himself to his back, going back to rocking. He didn't know what else to do. Gaara might cry easily, but he'd never seen him cry this long or hard before. Usually a bit of tickling and playing got him back to normal in a little while. 'I'm sorry, please don't be sad…'

All of this made him feel bad. It was like when his daddy started crying and wouldn't stop, no matter what he did to try to prevent it. He couldn't remember when had been the last time that happened, but he knew it had been back at home. Just thinking about it made him squeeze the smaller kid closer. 'Please don't cry anymore.'

In answer, the redhead didn't push the blond away, but he also curled into the plush tighter, muffling the sobbing and crying against his will to cry, making his throat burn more than it deserved to hurt. He didn't want Naruto to feel sad, but the longing he felt was much, much stronger than anything he knew about. The puzzle that he missed for most of his life had reconnected with him and was lost again, making him realize what he had really lost. It hurt. Very much. So he squealed only louder, wanting to assure Naruto to not worry about him, but it came out without meaning so it couldn't make anything words worthy. At least he tried.

'Gaara.' the blond whispered in a small whine. Nothing he tried to do seemed to help at all, only made things worse. He made a childish attempt to kiss the redhead's head and squeezed him a little tighter, resuming the stroking. Not for the first time, Naruto felt his inability to stop someone else's tears was directly his fault.

Gaara hiccupped, getting a hold onto the blond's shirt, not lessening his behavior. The kiss tickled against his head but it wasn't very reassuring. But he clung tighter. Because it was all he could do now.

Daichi did his best to dry out his bitter tears in silence, but even then, one or two muffled sounds escaped him. Hopefully, nobody was interested much to hear him out. When nobody came, he was finally sure that nobody did. He didn't know how much time he spent there, squeezed between the pipes of the sink and porcelain surface of the toilet seat. Always when he drowned in that dark salty lake of sorrow the time stopped mattering for him. He could have sat there for five minutes, fifteen or maybe even five hours. He didn't know. Hopefully, it wasn't any longer than he needed to serve his other body needs. He bit on the weaker tears, swallowing them and not letting them out, knowing that if anything, he could cry endlessly for everything he had in life.

But he couldn't act miserable. This never led him anywhere. Only being strong mattered on this world. With a shaky hands he flushed down the toilet to make clear he was using it even if he didn't and he got up on his shaky legs. A bit of sitting in tightly squeezed position made him cut the circulation in his tights, but at least now they felt a bit freshened when he freed the blood from the jamming. He looked in the mirror. The man on the other side looked only like a shadow of Daichi he used to know a few years ago. Who would have thought. Opening the tap with slow, masochistic moves, he took the cold water to splash it against his face, then opened the warm to wash his trembling hands in it.

Maybe his body has stilled, but inside, he felt like if he was made of jelly. What was he supposed to do once he would get out of that place? Go to Minato and listen to him again like a kid that did wrong and was punished by parents? Or maybe go to kids to make sure they were there? He so wanted to do that. He needed to feel their presence… But then, Gaara needed his presence for far too long now. But then, he acted too rude too many times already… green soap slipped through his hands, landing under the stream of water, losing the bubbles. Without washing his hands away he leaned on the sink, facing the water. There was something he had to do… he had to do something… something… something…

His eyes closed and reopened. And then it clicked. Something. Something he could do. The peace covered his shivering insides like a balsam, calming and warm. How could he forget about that. After washing his hands he closed the tap and rose his head. The man on the other side of the mirror looked at him with two strong lights lit in his eyes, looking almost unhealthy in his new strength. He turned away from him. Besides that, his face looked one hundredth percent calm and normal. That was more than enough. In silence, he exited the bathroom and got back to the kitchen.

'I'm sorry, I had to go to the bathroom.' he muttered, sitting down on the chair he left. The stain below the cup remained 'I have the problems with my stomach lately.' _Let's continue. I would like to get home before midnight._

Minato was smoking again, and he'd noticed with slight alarm that he was three cigarettes away from finishing yet another package. He'd have to do something about it. He didn't want to go back to smoking like a chimney, yet he'd quite easily slipped back into the custom in the past two weeks. At the man's comment he blinked confusedly and gave the clock on the wall a confused gaze- it was late. A lot later than he'd expected it to, already 10:15Pm. It was nice to know time hadn't really stopped as he'd expected it to.

'I'm sorry.' he said automatically, his eyes going back to the man, leaning back on the window as he stared at him. If the quickly reddening eyes and paleness said anything, he hadn't exactly been sick, but he could hardly call him out on that. '…what about tomorrow, then?'

Daichi budged, like if the words of Minato had wakened him from some kind of a slumber and looked at him with absent minded gaze. 'Tomorrow?...' he muttered like if Minato had asked him about something he completely knew existed. Like rhinos in Africa. Or the snow outside. He wasn't making plans about tomorrow yet. 'What about tomorrow?... I have work and kids go to school.'

The man's words should have appeased this nervous feeling, but they way he said them, and moreover, the look he had as he did, only caused him to feel uncomfortable.

'What about Sarutobi-sensei?' What about the snow? Was he really planning to just let his kid freeze half to death? Daichi looked at him for a moment in silence, then he looked down at the floor. He shrugged.

'Maybe the snow will stop falling.' he said quietly. What else he could do? He couldn't stop it by himself. And the man wouldn't call the child care if there would be no snow, right? Though now it wasn't so sure thing now. 'One day off the school won't hurt them much…'

'…but who will take care of them if you are at work and you don't want that man to do it either?' Was it just hi, or was the older man starting to sound incoherent?

Daichi looked at him with humorous smile.

'What do you think, I'm stupid?' he asked, then leaned down on the chair with even more relaxed sate 'I'll just stay with them. I haven't taken my leave for so long, I think I deserve the vacations at least for once, don't you think?...' No, he didn't. No, he couldn't. No, it was against his list of rules. When you were endangered in being fired you didn't take any free days. You sat in the office day after day, worked your ass off and when the boss asked you if you feel tired with hands dying from tiredness you thanked him for so light non stressing work and asked for more. That was what usually saved you from getting out of the company with the good cv. But he couldn't leave kids alone, could he? He did that at least one time too many.

'And you will do that all winter…?' The blond was obviously uncomfortable. He felt like when he'd had to answer the Holy Inquisition of the shrink board, all that amiable, soft tones that couldn't have sounded more condescending if the bastards had been making a physical attempt at it. Why was the man suddenly acting like that?

'You asked me about tomorrow.' said Daichi, slowly losing his smile and turning his face to the clock. It was getting far too late even for his own likings. Not that he was really hurrying anywhere now 'So I said what I'll do tomorrow.'

He waited a moment, counting the ticking of the clock in silence, then he got up from the table.

' I'm sorry, but I really don't have time… kids have to go to sleep earlier. I'd better get going. Thanks for the coffee.' with that, he got up and with one glance at the spilled contents of the mug, he walked out from the room. It was so easy to talk to people when you didn't have to stress out about so many things. Minato wanted to protest, say something to stop him, but that maddening shrinkish _'Don't worry, I know you are barking mad, no one judges you for it'_ just made him want to pick the phone and talk to someone who would- someone… he just wanted to have someone there for him. And more than someone? He wanted Kushina there. But she was gone now, and like always, the idea he would never see her again hurt and surprised him in ways he had expected to have been over with by now.

'Listen.' he blurted before the man had a chance to walk out of the kitchen. 'I know it doesn't sound like it sometimes, but I really want to help, just…' he didn't know how. Or if he'd even be able to do it at all. '…just tell me if you need help.'

What a lame ending. What a stupid thing to say, damn it.

Daichi stopped for a moment and turned his head to the side. Help? Why should he need any help? But it was so nice of the man to say so.

'Thank you.' he said calmly and walked out of the room. Nothing else needed to be said. Like in malign, he walked to the room where Temari sat, getting her to wear her clothes quickly and the same happened with Kankuro, though the kid seemed to be still angry at him. But he didn't even speak about what's happened previously. That would make too much mess and talking at the point where he just wanted to leave. With one 'don't punch your sister' he left the kids in the hallway to gather his last kid. The sobs still could be heard coming from that door. For how long Gaara had been crying?... Far too much for a little kid like him, he was sure.

With a pang of guilty, he entered the room. Oh, there he was. With Naruto curled around him so tightly like if they were one body. If they were older he would start to wonder about their sexuality, but at that age… He patted the blond on the shoulder.

'Kid, get off. I'm taking him home.' he muttered in calm, steady tone without a bit of warmth in his voice. 'Say byes and go.'

At the words, redhead in Naruto's arms frozen. And then he rose up the tearful green eyes and let out a wail that was hiding just at the ends of his lungs. A big protesting wail. He didn't want to get home. He didn't want anything. Just mommy. Only mommy.

'No!...' he protested as the man reached out for him and let go of Naruto, crawling away 'Mommyyy! I wantta mommy!...'

…and not daddy. When Daichi reached out his hand more, actually catching the kid on the side, Gaara squealed even louder, like if it wasn't a hand of a father that caught him, but big jaws of a man-eating monster that longed for his flesh. Grabbing his plush tighter, he started beating the limb blindly with the last bits of strength he was left with.

'I don't wanna!...' he wailed as Daichi, despite being hit so profusely, shrug the shock off and caught the kid with both of his hands under its arms 'I don't wanna! It's your fault!... Mommyyy!...' One of the hits had actually reached Daichi's face, making him feel closely the texture of the plush and feel the buttons scrapping his face. And yet, he had only moved his head away, waiting for the kid to stop. As it came, after a few more senseless hits, the small hands finally let go of the toy and were left unarmed in the air. The redhead kept crying. 'I don't like you at aaalll!... Mommyyy!... Mooommmyyyy!...'

Maybe a few minutes ago he would get mad or so depressed he would actually hurt the kid. But now it didn't seem to matter that much. Without a word, he just carried the kid on the arm-length away from him and left him in the hallway, crying, only to get back for the plush. After a moment, he was back to the redhead, who didn't seem to want to stop and started dressing him, despite loud wails. Almost like if he couldn't see him crying. The other kids watched the scene in unease, tossing glances at themselves, but dressing quickly without one word. Finally, all four was ready to go out. Temari nervous, Kankuro with a gravy humor, Gaara wailing and Daichi looking like if he left half of himself in another world.

'We will be going now.' he said, not really trying to get louder than the crying redhead 'Thank you for… everything.'

The plush he held in his shook in a tick. It seemed he didn't even want to hand it back to Gaara. But the redhead was also not complaining. At least not about that. Naruto stared at the man uneasily, not really knowing what to do without his daddy there, but he didn't dare to leave in case the man tried to do something and he had to help Gaara… he squeaked when the redhead accidentally hit his father, actually expecting the man to do something absolutely horrible like he had before in response, but nothing happened. He was both surprised and a bit relieved, but he would have felt better if Gaara hadn't been crying like that… And he wondered what would he do if he were still doing it the next day.

'Um.' he twitched nervously, not really knowing what to do, then finally blurted out a 'Be nice to him, okay?' that was more pleading than anything else.

Minato winced at the sound of Gaara's loud wailing, a small part of himself thinking if the neighbors might complain, not that it really was that late… So far he hadn't had any problems with noise, besides Naruto randomly shouting here and there, but that was quickly taken care of, so… God, how could something so small cry so much? It broke his hair to listen to that level of misery. He nodded at the man's words.

'It's nothing.' he said, knowing perfectly well that's exactly what it had been. 'Please let me know if you need anything else.'

Daichi looked at him for a moment like if the man was not speaking in Suna dialect.

'Thank you.' he said again, like if he didn't know what to say, then glanced down at the smaller blond. That kid always surprised him as he had very little to do with him and if it wasn't for looks it was possible he would have problems with connecting him with Minato at all. 'And you be nice to your father.' he muttered in response. It wasn't directly a warning for the kid, more like a promise in the name of the older man's comfort, but it stayed only a gesture after all. Kids were never good in keeping such promises. With a light smile, he turned around and, tossing one last glance, all four of them – nervous Temari, gravy looking Kankuro, sobbing Gaara and absent minded Daichi – were gone.

And so the Sabakus left, leaving much bigger a mess than there had been before their appearance. Minato didn't feel just tired, he felt like if someone had shot a gallon of ice cream straight into his brain and left him feeling both dull and stupid. It was depressingly reminiscent of his childhood. He spent several minutes pushing a few things more or less in their appropriate places, but when that distraction proved to be of no help, Minato went to see what was taking his son so long- Naruto was standing in the middle of it, looking at the rumpled bed with an all-too adult expression of defeat on his face, and only turned to look at him when he put a hand on his head.

'Dad…' The look he gave him forced him to make up his mind, and without words, he picked the little blond up and hugged him tightly for a moment, then turned around and turned the lights off, taking the kid to his own room. If Naruto didn't want to sleep on his own for this night, he would understand. If he didn't want to sleep alone for the rest of the year, he'd understand it too. He changed into his sleeping clothes, even when he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep on his own yet again, got into bed and pulled the tiny body closer to his chest, reaching to stroke the soft hair. Naruto immediately glued himself to his side, pressing against his chest and gripping the t-shirt he had on with small fingers that tightened and loosened on their own. He turned off the lights and waited.

'…daddy?' He let his hand slide down and started stroking the little boy's neck in that way he knew would make him fall asleep in a matter of minutes, making a small, inquisitive sound in response. 'You would never leave me, right…?'

He wasn't surprised by the question, but the scared expression on his son's eyes hurt nonetheless.

'Of course not, Naru.' Minato leaned down to give the little boy a small kiss on the forehead and continued stroking him. 'I'd never, ever let anyone take you away from me.'

'But you wouldn't leave me, right?' was the insistent response, nothing I the clear blue eyes indicating reassurance. The question hurt him for various reasons, one more complicated than the other. What had happened hurt him because Gaara and his siblings didn't deserve such treatment. Because Naruto had to see those things and because now he has a new thing to fear. It hurt to think that he would have to come to a decision if no one else did, and that decision might hurt and possibly separate the little kids permanently.

'Never, love.' he stroked one of the slight indentions of the scars left on his son's face, and wondered why if he really was fit to make any decisions, when he barely was capable of taking care of one small person. It took longer than he expected for the constant squeezing of his shirt to slow to a stop, and even longer for the boy's body to relax in that unmistakable way that indicated that the kid wouldn't be waking up on his own anytime soon. It was almost midnight by the time Minato got up from bed, knowing it wasn't advisable to lounge on it when he didn't really feel sleepy. He went back to his son's room and mechanically started going through the motions of making the bed. He picked both untouched chocolates and took them to the kitchen, then went around looking for the other missing cups.

Temari's was empty, though that might be because it fell on the carpet (he put some random cleaning product that might or not have been the one intended for it, not that he especially cared) and found Kankuro's barely touched one in the table. That reminded him to turn the laptop off and left it charging while he went to clean the few remaining dishes. By the time he was done he decided that he might as well make some food for Gaara and Naruto, and when he finally looked at the time when he was done with the sandwiches, he realized it was well past one in the morning and he still didn't feel like sleeping. Unfortunately, he felt even less like thinking. Twenty minutes after a quarter of valium, he was completely out.

#+#+#+#+#+#

At the same time, in the other house, on the other side of town… Everybody slept. Everybody. Not a single soul was awakened at the wail, not a single murderer came to the door and banged on them, demanding the silence, not a single person got interested. Maybe it was normal already. Maybe cries of the kid from number seventeen didn't surprise anybody anymore. Or maybe they were just all out. Maybe dead. Daichi didn't know. Shooting of a gun could be heard in that place quite often, and even more often they couldn't be heard. Usually the police found dead bodies after a week or two, when the rotting of the meat started to be too hard to handle. He lived through that once.

Someone was killed and taken only a few days after they moved in. It was only a coincidence that he didn't sleep that night as his payment was still enough for everything so he accidentally got an eyeful both on policemen and the dead body. It was only then when he stopped getting familiar with people living and moving around his flat. People, as nice as they seemed to be, didn't seem to even notice that. Maybe beside that nice old lady living three flats away, but she died a week later from old age. So it didn't matter.

So nobody cared. Nobody cared when he drove near the house with two kids so quiet it was strange and one wailing so hoarsely it was strange it could cry. Nobody cared when all of them got up to the right flat, step after step, loud, making presence after the sleeping hours and when the redhead started screaming about how 'he wanted to mommy' and how 'it was all his fault' and to 'let him go'. Nobody cared. Nobody reacted.

So probably nobody would react if he just got a knife and decided to rip those tiny, soft stomachs open or get a cable from iron and strangle them all blue or started just taking one after another and hitting their heads against the walls until the red blotches wouldn't turn pink and white from the brain mass hitting it and the air would start stinking from the gravy silence of dead children. Nobody would care. He smiled to himself with humorous smile, and yet, kept his eyes wide open in fear. Funny, what kind of strange images imagination sent him, no? Very funny. Why was that happening? He didn't know…

Everybody slept. He could not. His brain didn't let him. Kankuro fell asleep, huddled away in the corner, ignoring his touch. Temari fell asleep, curled near him. And finally, even Gaara fell asleep, chewing on his teddy and sobbing himself into the dreamland. He held them both, Temari, who cuddled with need, so much need he didn't see in her from ages and the redhead who wanted to kick him away but gave up when his strength left him. He sat, cuddled the kids close and stared at the windows. What could he do?

They've been found. Found by Yashamaru. More, there was no safe place in the town already. The blond also provided no safe hiding. The blond couldn't help. The weather was against him. People at work were against him. Uzumakis said they could help but what kind of help could they give? He couldn't just give him his kids forever… and they were a strange pair of people too. Was it even safe anywhere at all?... He blinked and the dim lamp outside that was supposed to give off the bright light and gave only an illusion of vision blinked and started buzzing. He blinked again. No, there was not.

Strange how could he not feel scared by it once it came to this. Strange.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Rrrrinnng!

When Daichi woke up, the feeling of weirdness didn't go away. He lied in his own bed, in the bloody room, alone staring at the ringing clock, unmoving…

…and it still was strange. Strange, how the clock screamed at him to wake up and he stared at the numbers, unmoving. Strange how he was not getting up to work and how they grey dullness outside his window didn't seem so dull anymore. Strange how the heavy snowing outside didn't worry him. Strange. How did he get to the bed alone?... He couldn't remember…

With a heavy clasp of a hand he had finally silenced the arm and got up from the bed. The sleepy form of Temari had already walked out of the bed, wiping her eyes with still warm from sheets little fists. Before she could go and wake her brothers, he caught her by arms and steered back to her bed where he had lied with her. The bed was still warm under the covers…

'Daddy?...' muttered the girl drowsily, gazing up at him with little frown 'It's Wednesday today…'

'That's okay, Temari.' he muttered back, kissing her on the forehead 'It's a special day. Today we don't have to get up.'

'Even you, daddy?...' she muttered, still a little disbelieving. The days when he was not hurrying anywhere beside Sundays almost didn't happen now.

'Even I.' he said in a soft tone and stroked the blonde hair 'Sleep, Temari. We all deserve a good rest.'

'Okay.' said the girl and curled up to him. After looking at the relaxed features of the girl for a moment or two, he laid down his head also. Yes, some more minutes of sleep would be also making wonders to him. It took only another twenty minutes of rest when Kankuro pushed his side, waking him up. He looked back at the kid, not understanding what he was doing there and in what point of their house he was. Why wasn't he in his own bed?... When did he get here?... He couldn't remember…

'Dad!...' muttered Kankuro with annoyed tone, pushing on his arm again 'Get up!... We will be late for school!...' Why was the man just sleeping here like if didn't matter? It wasn't Sunday yet! And the clock was already very late…

'Dad!...' he said again, doing another push. Daichi finally looked at him.

'Go back to bed, Kankuro.' he said in a tired tone 'It's too early to be awake.' Really, couldn't the kid just understand and leave to bed on his own?... But as the brown-haired kid just stared at him with confusion, Daichi finally decided to leave the lair and steer the boy to his own sheets. Kankuro laid in them without pleasure, looking at him like if he was out of his mind when he explained to him it was a special day then finally, after a moment or two, decided to stop protesting. With a sigh, Daichi went out of the room.

Not far though. It took him only two steps when another sound from the same room could be heard, followed by a chirp of a sob. When he came back, big, fat tears of the despair already began rolling on the face of his youngest child. It would look comical as the redhead didn't even seem to be fully awake, only it wasn't. When he touched the child, the surprising warmness answered his perception. But before he could check on if the kid really had temperature, the hand was pushed away. Of course.

'Mommyyy!...' began in a tiny whine Gaara, clutching at the pillow with small fists 'I want to mommyyy!...' And when he wanted to stroke the red hair, his hands were pushed away again. He felt dull.

Gaara had never acted like that toward him before…

'Why have you done thaaat!...' cried Gaara with a sob that started to gain on volume and strength 'It was all your faaauuult!... I want to mommy, don't TOUCH ME!...' The last words were screeched in the volume that would indicate that Daichi was actually burning the kid with hot iron, when he was only holding the side of a tiny body. But he didn't move his hand away. He even opened his mouth to say something, anything, but no words came. What could he say to the kid? That it was not his fault? Too much talking. That it wasn't his mother? Gaara was not listening. That he was supposed to sit quiet? Like if he would…

When the small hand hit his face, he finally moved his other arm and blocked the screaming mouth from the sound. Gaara flexed against him with muffled sound. He stared back with calm expression.

'Gaara, calm down.' he muttered. What could he say to him? He had no idea. But then, his mouth opened on its own and the words rolled off his tongue by themselves 'You will meet your mother, you will.'

The kid stilled immediately, looking at him with wide eyes. He blinked then frowned, more at himself than the kid. What?... But then, wasn't it obvious?...

'Really?...' said Gaara with hopeful tone as he moved his hand away carefully. 'Meet mommy?...' He nodded slowly.

'Yes. Your mommy.' he said, tucking the kid in the cover again 'Soon.' Really this time. Gaara quieted down and watched him with wondering eyes again. He stroked the red head in silence, observing them, until they closed in the sleep again. Then he walked away. He could only move forward now. When the first lamp on the street dissipated, switched off, he took the first sip of the cheap wine he was holding in the cupboard, where it lied, bought back in the days. When he thought it would be good to invite neighbors over. Old, stupid times.

But the sunrise was so beautiful. Without a thought, he took the second swing of the alcohol and sealed the bottle away. He knew everything he needed to know. When the clock had finally shown ten a.m., he got up from the chair and walked up through the rooms, waking up all of the resting children - Kankuro who didn't sleep, Temari who didn't seem to get enough sleep still and Gaara who slept but didn't mind being awaken, greeting him with an excited smile. He smiled back at him, holding the kid by his hand.

'Come on, Kankuro, Temari.' he said to the other kids that were slacking off behind them 'Get up. We can't sleep whole day, we have to get ready for this special, beautiful day.'

Kankuro scrunched his nose in disbelief, then looked at the window. It was still snowing heavily. That was not how he viewed beautiful.

'Why?' he asked, still not dropping the hurt from his voice. One couldn't forget the yesterday so easily after all 'You said were not going anywhere.'

'Oh yes, we are.' said Daichi, getting the plates form the cupboards, the plates on which they all ate and which they hadn't used in number of four for quite a long time. He had to make a good breakfast once had occasion. Temari yawned, covering her mouth with little fist.

'Where?...' she asked, still a little drowsily. Funny, how the biggest of the children needed the biggest amount of sleep from them all. Daichi turned to her with a smile that in his facial assortment of facial expressions could be called 'dazzling'.

'On a journey.' he said. And when the kids looked at him with surprised eyes, he just got back to cleaning the dusty spoons. He didn't have to explain. All would be known soon.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato had fallen so deeply asleep it took Naruto to come yell at him they were late to get him to get up. He'd just stared dazedly at his little ball of blond shaking him violently a moment or two before the little kid woke up to off the alarm himself, considering his dad wasn't much help right now, then Minato did the same with the cell phone that was resting on the headboard. He tended to his son's breakfast, which was an uninspired bowl of cereal and half a banana, then left to change and brush his teeth.

He was sure he was supposed to think of something. He really, really, absolutely was completely sure he should be thinking of something extra important, but for the life of him couldn't remember what. It'd come to him eventually. It was snowing quite heavily by the time they made it out the department, and it only was about a block into it when Naruto started huffing with every labored step. They stopped long enough for Minato to get his kid securely on his back and then resumed the walk at a considerably improved speed.

The exercise made him feel a little hungry and a little more aware, but it wasn't really enough for him to remember what was so important yet. Maybe that's why when the teacher approached him to 'have a talk' he looked at him with a slightly panicked expression as if wondering if he had done something bad himself. Was he behind on payments? No, he paid all taxes and everything on the same week a little before beginning of the month to avoid crowds and waiting lines, he couldn't be behind that. Maybe he forgot to sign something? Had he forgotten…?

'Excuse me, Mr. Uzumaki.' said Asuma, seeing the slightly alarmed expression of the blond and frowning with worry. That didn't seem like a good sign of well done talk. It was still nothing as Sabakus were always late and there was high possibility they would show extra late but… still, that was worrisome 'May I have a word with you? Yes? Good… can you tell me how the talk with Mr. Sabaku went? I need to know how to react to everything to not make the situation worse than it is.'

'Oh…' The shoulders sagged lightly in relief. 'Sorry… I thought I had forgotten to pay something…' He shouldn't have had that valium so late at night. The man rose his eyebrow a little, but beside that said nothing. If that was the worst worry of someone who never forgot about anything then maybe it was a good sign?...

'Well… there is a situation….' Yeah… Wasn't that the important thing, the really important thing? Sounded like it… He forced himself to concentrate. 'Sabaku-san is having some private problems right now, but he is trying to fix them.' Was he? Really? Fixing them like he fixed Gaara last night? Right, sure…

Fuck, he needed more sleep. He couldn't even think straight. At least he thought he looked normal. Naruto hadn't pointed anything out so far.

'…he said he might not come to see the kids today. I think Gaara was coming down with something.' With the way he sounded by the time he had left, a sore throat would be the smallest problem that could be expected. 'If that is the case, would you please call me so I can take Naruto back at a regular hour? I wouldn't want to impose on your time.' Without Gaara there, there was no reason for Naruto to stay overtime at the kinder either way.

'Yes, sure.' said the man with a small frown. In that kind of weather it was obvious that small kid of Gaara's health would get sick. And the man wanted to let him go like that for the whole winter? Good lords, it took only one day of snowing. Hopefully, that would make him go to the right mind and do something about this situation in the end. 'Is there anything else I can do for you then, Mr. Uzumaki?'Because the man seemed to be a little out of it, so maybe an additional help would be needed. Minato frowned thoughtfully. Did he?

'Yes, by the way…' he blurted out suddenly, not really knowing what he was going to say when all he could think about was of a ace of diamonds motif in a coffee cup, with a cigarette swimming in it. Nice image, but not unique enough to make a story. Why was he thinking about it then…? 'I know it doesn't need to be said or anything, but… Please be careful with Naruto. The other kids too. I don't think there will be any situation like it anytime soon, but unless I say so, don't let him leave with anyone. Even if they have my signature or something…'

The man rose his eyebrows up high, but didn't say a word. That was clearly pointing out at some danger and a child kidnapper nonetheless. But he hadn't heard about anyone like that walking around nearby? The place they had their kindergarten was a rather peaceful spot. But then, it never hurt to be a little more careful if a parent wanted that. After meeting up with such irresponsible parent as Mr. Sabaku it was no wonder he was getting more careful.

'Of course.' he said, patting the little blond on the head 'The kid is safe with me and I wouldn't let him go with anyone but you. Right, Naruto? Only your dad.'

The little blond nodded obediently, but his father just looked at him in slight worry. Naruto had initially gone away to get his heavy winter clothing off, but had gotten stuck between jacket and scarf and come back to retrieve adult help. When he did, both his dad and teacher seemed to be busy talking, so he had done what any child his age would have. He got as close as he could to try to eavesdrop. Minato reached to pat his hair himself gently.

'I'm sorry if I'm sounding crazy but… I'm kind of sure I've seen a man following us around…' This was a lie, but Minato had always been rather willing to use those if they got him out of a tight spot. And if they made sure no creepy people got near Naruto? Then perfect. That got Asuma's senses alarmed. A man? Following around? That never was a good sign.

'Do you want me to call a police?' he asked with higher tone 'They can check the place out and escort you safely home…'

The blond quickly shook his head.

'Please, don't… It really might be just me, I just want to make sure Naruto is safe. That man's got dark blond hair, green eyes…' And he didn't want to have to call the police already less than a year into his new house. Call it an early new year resolution.

'The nice uncle who looks like a girl?' The little blond interrupted. 'He was here already, daddy.' Minato had been one of the few that had gotten a computer with Windows Millennium program pack back when the program had been just released. He had suffered through bugs, random problems opening files and the ever dreaded blue screens.

One day, he'd just had enough and banged a fist against the side of the computer when it got stuck without him having done anything to warrant it. The screen had flashed black, started showing a series of dashes while emitting a high pitched bout of blings, and just when he feared the thing would explode on his face, the thing had rebooted all on itself. His brain felt a little like that computer right now.

'…what?'

Asuma blinked, not really understanding. The man with green eyes? He saw those many times already and by gods' sake he couldn't remember anyone like that coming here lately. So he looked at Naruto with surprise also. Minato looked at his son, then at teacher for answer, but the man looked as confused as he was.

'When?'

'Um…' When? Hadn't it just been yesterday? Did Asuma-teach have that bad memory? 'The day before today?' he couldn't remember the word right now. Minato kneeled down to grab the little boy by the shoulders.

'Love, did he do anything to you? Did he say anything?'

Naruto shook his head, eyes wide and round as he slowly started understanding that for some reason that man scared his father seemingly as much as the 811 lady. But the man had seemed so nice…?

'No… he just patted Gaara and told him he looked like an angle. Asuma-teach told him this wasn't the hospital and he left.'

'Are you sure it was him?'

'His eyes were like Temari's.' Minato remembered having recalled something similar. Hadn't a man tripped on him just yesterday? Asuma's eyes widened at the description. But that… that was this man who came yesterday, who mistook the places… he thought he was weird, but nothing alarmed him enough to think about him as someone strange... what kind of teacher he was if that hadn't alarmed him? That was how pedophiles usually acted!...

'I remember now.' he said in a quiet tone 'I thought he was weird too, he was fraternizing himself with Mr. Sabaku's child… nothing has happened but I wouldn't let him close to children again.' he looked at the blond, then messed his hair also. 'Don't worry, we will be looking out for him from now on. The kid is safe with us, I'm sure.'

Minato had gone from feeling confused to feeling pressure in his upper chest. It distinctly felt wanting throw up without the added nausea. He knew he wasn't going to be sick, though, he hadn't eaten anything in the past eight hours and this was a common symptom he got when he was stressed. That man had already been here? Inside, with the kids? He'd been with Gaara… but then, why had Gaara acted like if he'd never seen him before?

It was confusing. Too much for him to handle right now. Reaching for his son, he clutched at him lightly, wanting to actually take him home, book the first flight that went anywhere and just leave. He was exaggerating. That man was trying to intimidate Sabaku, not him. He was being paranoid like always, and blowing things out of proportion.

'Bądź ostrożny, słonko. _Be careful, love._' he murmured in the little blond's ear, making the little kid cling to him just as fiercely, though in his case it was solely to comfort his father. 'Jasne. Nie martw się, tatku. _M'kay. Don't worry, daddy.'_

A few moments later most of the kids were hoarded inside, but Minato stayed at the doors and lit his last cigarette as he stared around. No one was around, just another parent who arrived to drop his little precious flower not quite in time and that waved at him amiably. He did look familiar, but that didn't make him feel any better. He needed to think. He really needed to, but his brain wasn't cooperating, just kept asking himself if he might have anything to do with her and how he knew that wasn't possible yet couldn't shake it out of his mind. Fucking Millennium pack, he needed something to reformat his brain. He was going to think about it though; face it like an adult.

Just… in a little while. He was so tired and his head was starting to hurt in those horrid little jabs of pain behind his eyes, and he was sure that if he went to bed some more he wouldn't be able to think rationally and actually understand the situation all the batter if he just went to sleep and rested a bit. On his way back home, he stopped at a gas station to buy cigarettes and a new box of Nyquil. Once home, he stared at the latter for a long while before closing the door of the medicine cabinet. His expression would have scared his son.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…'

The dark, black colored, dusty car who hadn't seen car wash for at least four years, slowly drove through the black road in the middle of the town. The people around huddled in their coats, fighting with their never opening or always turned on the wrong side umbrellas and hurried back home from their normal, passable work to make a normal passable dinner for their normal passable children. And no wonder, since the snow had been starting to fall in heavier drops, slowly covering the ground in whiteness. Suddenly, all dull grayness disappeared from the face of the world…

…and only because it started snowing, the people in the radio started singing Christmas carols a month before the actual event. But this year Sabaku no Daichi hadn't caught the unused button from power and didn't switch off the annoying voices from the other side. For once, the radio in the car played in soft cheery tunes as he drove without actual aim, every once and then glancing in the mirror. The children slept peacefully. Like angels. '…oh what fun it is to ride on one-horse open sleigh, oh! Jingle bells…'

And he would find that beautiful, he would. Only if it wasn't induced with such a heavy mass of sleeping pills, he would actually enjoy the peaceful silence. Heck… he could find something beautiful in the horrid image even now. Because the silence brought promises. Promises of better future… This would all end soon. And they would all rest. Rest in eternal peace. They deserved it, didn't they? After such a long cold day full of celebrating… '…jingle all the way…'

It all started like usual- the table was set and the kids were showed their places. He cooked the remnants of what was left and served them all, and then, all of them dug in. Usual. Only, not so usual as usual. Because it was an ordinary day and there was no hurry. Because it was an ordinary day and there was actually food on the plates – no leftovers of everything that couldn't be sliced and chopped into the tiniest bits because it couldn't get even tinier – but normal portions of everything.

A cereal and then sandwiches. And a very hot tea with spoonful of sugar each. A very special breakfast. Nothing close that was probably eaten at Uzumaki's house, but still fair enough to make Temari wake up and watch in amazement and Gaara squeal in joy at the tomatoes. Even Kankuro had brightened up a bit, even if his facial features showed he was suspicious. But he didn't ask so Daichi didn't explain. And that was perfect too, because if he had to lie it wouldn't be nice and telling the truth would destroy the atmosphere. Because how could you eat the sandwich knowing that you ate eleven rates of food at once and the next possible food would show up only after that amount of time?

Probably Gaara would be the only one to not drop the spoon into milk and stare at the already half-empty bowl in horror. And he didn't do that only because he knew that they didn't have to care about that anymore. And that was the first day since the moment he left his home the bread didn't taste like crumbs of wood in his mouth. He really enjoyed that meal like a meal for the special day it was. Really.

The car stopped at the lights. The red on the side way of the road looked almost like a red bubble on Christmas tree. Also beautiful. The whole world was beautiful now. Dullness covered by silence… he could almost find there a sign for him – that it was a good choice. He was making a good choice.

Everything pointed at that. Like when he made the kids wear their most beautiful clothes – for the first time Gaara didn't protest against the stiff neckwear, obviously being sure it was all for mommy. He even hummed something to himself, then made his own toy wear one of the useless ribbons that were left from Temari's hairwearings. He didn't do the slightest thing to cut the obliviousness from the kid. Why should he? Gaara wouldn't understand the difference between fake and real mother. All would be explained in the end.

Older kids were more suspicious and more questioning, but it was easy to make Temari curious with simple 'it's a secret' word. The most troubles were caused by Kankuro, whose skeptic pose kept on disbelieving him and asking the same question twice, but when he had finally assured that yes, the thing Gaara was blabbering about was true, he had finally quieted down. It was good that he sent Temari to another room before he said that because the girl would probably get scared. She was the only one who showed some rationality here and didn't want to get back to the sweetish uncle. Thankfully.

And when he finally had worn his best suit (from his wedding, how ironic!) and gathered all things he needed (which wasn't much – only a handful of sleeping pills that hardly worked on him and a bag of keys) they had finally went out the house. He closed the door without a blink of an eye, without the slightest pang of worry – it felt like if all worries were staying behind the door to the hellhole in the hellish street and were just sealed away to be buried under the time, forgotten, wiped out…

Strange, how it easy it was once he tried. When he started a car, he could almost hum along with the youngest of his kids. It was that how light his soul felt. Almost like if it was getting ready to fly away from the material body. But it was, wasn't it?

He turned the car sideways, steering it through the weakening snow, seeing how the drops of snow were replaced with more cutting wind. People on the streets had lessened, melted and finally disappeared from his sight, along with the tall houses, being replaced with more greenery, bald and losing the dry leaves on the wind. The suburbia greeted him with more snow and almost empty, virgin fields covered in thin layer of frozen waters. It felt almost like if his lungs were finally freed from the heavy drop that was squeezing them since who knows how long. Another sign he was going toward freedom. He turned to his kids, wanting to tell it to them with a smile, but seeing their unresponsive sleeping faces, he turned back a little disappointed.

Oh yes. In the excitement he had almost forgot he had drugged the kids. Pity. But then, he knew he had no other choice. If the kids would be awake, they probably wouldn't let him do anything. They would run, scream, cry and get attention of some passerby. And what he would do if one of them would run away? He wouldn't be able to face Karura after death, having to watch one of his kids living on that cold, scary Earth and having to watch it suffer. It had to be quick. Quick, painless and pleasurable. So they wouldn't notice when they would actually slip away. And who would guarantee it better than their own father? He only wanted the best for them after all.

'You understand that, right?' he muttered, then kissed the naked two last fingers of his left hands. He left the wedding ring at the shop, paying for the juices he drugged as he had no money to pay for them. The shopper wasn't very happy about the payment, but after he promised he would be back with real money, he had finally agreed. 'I know you would… wait for us, Karura, I'm coming. I'm coming and bringing the kids.'

And no piece of old gold mattered anymore. The car engine had finally stopped. Daichi looked around for a moment, then relaxed on the chair, closing his eyes for a moment. Not a one living soul nearby. Empty spaces covered in melting snow, some occasional trees and them in the middle of nowhere… if it wasn't for buildings on the horizon, he would think they had landed on the desert. White, deadly desert from where nobody had ever returned… A desert with a stream of refreshing water.

He opened his eyes. A stream made of cold, dirty water from sewage, only beginning to cover with the thinnest of the ices as the temperature was below zero, but not enough to make the running water freeze. Funny. Funny, because even in his worst nightmares he never lost his dignity and never thought of any of them so low to wish for a death in such a place. And what was he doing now? Flushing them down the sewage like excrements down the toilet. Funny.

But it didn't matter now. Bodies were materials they didn't take with them on the other side so even if the clear skin of Temari would be rotting in a few days and tenderness of the eyes of them all would be eaten out by bacteria flora, it didn't matter. He looked at the small bridge above the running river, not really believing that he was actually, finally seeing it when he thought he never would. The ride took forever and a blink of an eye at the same time. The final goal seemed to be just as unreal in both… Finally he turned the engine off.

It would be much easier to just push the pedal of gas and drive into it, it would. But the rivers there were never very deep and the water dripping inside would wake up the kids. He had to do it the other way.

In the silence, he turned the mirror away and looked back at the kids in the backseat. They were still sleeping in the light sleep, unsuspecting, harmless… like declawed kitten and muted puppies. Unaware of that there would be no more 'Naruto', 'white paint', 'spaghetti' and 'school'. Once it would be over it would be probably a surprise to see something completely different, but on the other side you didn't miss anything so in a way, I was a good gift… An early Christmas gift.

Tugging the tie to make it look just as it should, he opened the car and stood on the virgin layer of the snow. The air was crispy and bit on his skin, right through the thin layer of suit. But this, like many other things, also didn't matter. After a two deep breaths and in the middle of the third, he turned around and opened the door to the backseat. That would be no more harder than it would be with little dogs. And he killed those before. Just once, as it took too much out of him and he couldn't face the only one alive after that. But he had the experience. Parents were not disappointed when he announced he drowned all nine puppies. Mother even baked him a pie. He hated sweets since then. And now, it all would be over.

He unclasped the seatbelts of the all three and slowly took out Temari on the freezing air. She was the oldest and the heaviest, but even then she weighted very little in his hands. Probably not as much as a girl her age should. He remembered the day when he held her in the day of her birth. She was the biggest and the healthiest baby on the whole left side of the hospital. And now, look what he have done…

The second baby, squeezed between and holding onto the plushie toy was Gaara. He seemed to be light in his hands, almost like if he wasn't exactly from this world. This hadn't changed since the day he was born. The weight and health of Gaara was always questionable even at the beginning. And yet, he lived. Redheaded miracle of health. He would be sent back just where was his place.

And the third child, adding to the weight of them all, always mediocre in health in weight, worrisome but not too much. And yet, he had reasons to be proud of Kankuro – he was the healthiest and the strongest from all three, even if he had a bad habit of skipping his meals for the sake of his younger brother. Kankuro had always had the highest survival rate. But not today.

With one last glance he closed the door of the car, leaving the keys in the station. Nobody would be riding it back home. Hopefully, some lucky guy would gain home in it or maybe even take it and sell it. But at the most possible rate, it would be just taken back by the police and checked for the owners and maybe even point that the people who left it that way didn't do it like normal owners. Sooner or later it would. But not soon enough. He was not leaving a goodbye letter. He just didn't find a person who would want to read it with the right posture – Uzumakis were strangers, Yashamaru would laugh and his family would never get how many feelings empty words hid. It wasn't worth it. Come to think of it, was anything worth it?

When he walked up to the shore of the river, clenching his hands over the limp, drugged bodies, he tried to give himself the answer on that question, but when he had almost tripped on the slick remnants of grass, he stopped. The answer was not worth the question. And if he failed here, there would be no second chance. If he lived like an underdog at least he wanted to die like a human.

He finally stood at the wet mud that was the beginning of the swampy river. Previously, when he imagined himself that moment, he thought that maybe he would have doubts. Or maybe he would have poetic feelings some said they had near their death and would say some mighty words that would sum up his life. Or maybe he would even see his whole life flying before his eyes just right then…

Nothing like that had happened. His head swirled in emptiness as he watched the mainstream that didn't seem to be that strong as he thought when he watched it from affair. No doubts, no images from life, this or previous ones. Just the cold biting at his arms, frozen determination and the words of prayers on his lips, echoing in his empty head: 'Just let it work… let it work… gods, let me die too.' Because in killing the unconscious it was the hardest to kill your own consciousness. And he had to follow them all too.

This idea pushed him forward like none other.


	17. 17: Saffron rice

Minato had slept. Unlike most times, he felt like if he had slept even too much, when it had been only a little over two hours. He was completely out of it by the time his cell phone began to ring. He'd caught it groggily and managed to wake enough to understand that it was Naruto's teacher letting him know that effectively, Gaara hadn't come. One less thing to worry about for the next sixteen hours. It was then that he was finally able to remember in detail what had happened and the fact that man had come and been near his son and Gaara… And this time he was able to properly grasp its significance. He had thanked the other man after reassuring him he would go pick Naruto at the end of classes, and then sat in bed looking down at the blue cell phone without really seeing it for several minutes. He needed to think about the situation logically.

Was that 'uncle-mommy' man dangerous? Possibly. For Naruto and him? Not likely, he hadn't done anything to provoke him and from a detached point of view, he really seemed to be there just to scare the life out of Sabaku senior. He had gone to the kinder. And that was dangerous. Very, very dangerous, because he could take Gaara away easily. No one knew better than Minato how easily kids got lost and got taken away without ever being found again. And liking it or not, he had to call that man and tell him about it. He had looked through the numbers until he'd found the one he needed, and considered sending him a text message. They hadn't exactly parted in the best of terms after all, not that their relationship had been a wonder to begin with but a text message saying 'Asuma sensei told me your in law was by the kinder and tried to get your kid.' sounded just creepy. Not to mention what the hell the redhead would be capable of…

Unlike the way he treated Minato, the older man seemed intimidated by his wife's twin, maybe even scared, which made absolutely no sense because if anything, apparently the other man had so many more reasons even paranoid Sabaku could come up with to do anything to those kids, yet the one threatened with being murdered was him, not the other- aw, hell, what was he doing? With an annoyed snort, he decided to just ring.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Daichi was standing near the shore, holding all three kids close to himself lost In thought. They all slept like angels, quietly and naively, not even being aware of what was going to happen. He wondered how much it would take for them to wake up and how easily would it be to drown the youngest and the strongest one. He wondered…

Why was the water so dark

_On the shore_

…it called out to him.

He took one step forward, feeling the ice penetrating his shoe and he grimaced at that. But when he was about to take a quick leap forward to just get through the first icy barrier, the left pocket in his pants let out a loud rhythmic sound.

His phone. His mobile was ringing.

Without even thinking much about what he was doing, he carefully maneuvered through his middle child and reached to the pocket, not waking up any of them.

'Hello?' he asked in a quiet voice. It felt strange to hear himself out in the deserted lands where only wind made any hearable presence.

'…Sabaku-san? It's Uzumaki Minato, I'm sorry, did I wake you up?' How odd… he'd specifically called at the hour he supposed most people working in companies were at lunch so he'd be sure not to bother him… Maybe he'd interrupted a nap?

'No. Not at all.' said Daichi, looking at the kids. But neither of them seemed to notice he was being loud. It seemed that the volume he was speaking was just fine. 'I just have my hands full.'

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything…' he considered telling the man he'd call later, but he didn't really want to talk to him again that day if it could be helped, and knowing himself, he'd chicken out of it. Better to get this over now. 'I just wanted to tell you… When I went to kinder today, I- well… I told Asuma sensei that, in case that man showed up again… just to be careful… But Naruto said he'd already been there.'

'Was he? Well, that's a surprise.' said Daichi, but somehow, the shock hadn't reached him at all. He was about to drown his kids so there was no need to worry about such things, right? Yashamaru was not going to reach them where he was taking them after all. And he was taking them far away from him. To a safe place. Yeah. 'Thank you for telling me, Mr. Uzumaki.' Yes, that was what he was supposed to say. Be polite.

'Ah…'

…this was the reaction from the man who'd nearly had a panic attack just at seeing the man? Minato straightened in bed a little, wondered if maybe he was dreaming –he did occasionally have very realistic dreams- but things felt a little too real. Maybe they had talked about things and he didn't need to worry anymore? That would be bad, after what he'd just told the teacher… 'Um, not to intrude but… did you get things fixed up with him?'

Daichi frowned a bit, then took the phone out of his ear range and looked at like if it turned into some kind of strange insect. Then propped up Gaara on his left arm and got the phone back to himself.

'Not yet.' he muttered, then recalled the smug face of his in-law. What a pleasure would it be to see it all cold dead from shock, twisted in anger that never reached his facial features. 'But I know how what to do, so I guess that's not important anymore, right?'

'You spoke with a lawyer, then?' Minato asked before even knowing he was about to.

'No.' said Daichi calmly then he looked at his foot. It seemed that it lost the feeling in it, because it went numb to the point he was sure it didn't even belong to him anymore. Then he shrugged, like if the man could see him doing that. Though with all those kids on his arms Minato probably would have problem with seeing that even if he was standing nearby. Forgetting it wasn't really polite to snoop like that, Minato asked the only thing he could think of.

'...then?' Because he himself *had* needed a lawyer, and maybe Sabaku didn't have a chemical imbalance and needed pills to get that right, but he also wasn't in the best of situations to be so nonchalant.

'I'm busy.' Daichi muttered with such a weak tone that it was barely hearable. His voice bended like if he was about to have the adolescence growth spurt again. It was probably because of cold. And when he was about to turn off the phone, Gaara stirred on his left arm.

'Daddy?...' he asked drowsily, looking at his face through tired eyes. Daichi looked back at him, not even knowing how to react.

'Go to sleep, Gaara.' he muttered. The redhead looked at him for a moment, then obediently closed his eyes.

'I'm sorry.' he replied automatically, not even aware he'd said anything. The man sounded really weird, and he would have hung up if he hadn't heard Gaara then. He wasn't at work, then? Maybe he was sick? Hang up. Hang up now. 'Sabaku-san, is everything okay…?'

'Yes.' said Daichi automatically. Then he looked down at his own hands and his face fell for a moment, showing hopelessness and tiredness. 'No.' he added quietly. Then he regained his composure just as quickly and looked back at the car he left on the cold. Small flakes of snow had already started covering it up.

'I guess my feet are cold.' he said, not really understanding why he was telling him that 'We will be fine. My feet and me. Surely.'

'I see...' Okay. That sentence was just weird. And if Minato, who had a degree on languages and still had to correct his own writing before even mailing stuff to the editor because some things he wrote didn't make sense at all thought so… Maybe he'd been drinking? 'Would you like to come over and have some coffee?' he found himself asking. 'You could bring the kids.'

'Yes.' was the answer. Daichi still stood in one place, then turned back to the river. 'I could. I just have to do something while I'm on it.'

'I'm sure it can wait?' he said, unaware that he sounded a bit pleading. Daichi once again looked at the phone like if it had turned into a creepy Martian. Unconsciously, his legs began to shake, like if he was talking to the principal who found out about all his wrong doings.

'No, it can't wait.' he said with a breaking voice. 'I'm sure it can't.' Because… what would happened if he made it wait? He was sure that he wouldn't have stamina to build back all the courage he's got to stand just here like that. How was he supposed to face again the problems he just left behind? No, it was too hard. He wanted to get away from that. He wanted to feel comfortable. Not responsible. He didn't want to take any responsibility anymore.

'It can't.' he said with even more crept out, seeing that he was not only talking to Minato but also his reflection in the waters could be faintly seen. And it stared back at him 'Can it?...' He didn't like the note of doubt that suddenly had crept into his voice.

'Sure it can.' Minato said in a reassuring tone, more than anything because it seemed to be what the other man wanted to hear, but more than anything, because that's what he himself wanted. He didn't know what the man was doing, and drinking seemed a bit off because Gaara was with him and at this hour no bar would be open, so unless he either had alcohol at home or bought it at a supermarket or something… 'I'll put a movie for the kids and we can talk a bit.'

'I don't want to talk.' said Daichi almost with a crying tone, watching his mirror glancing back at him 'I just want to stop!' Whatever it meant. But he knew he was sincere at this moment. For once.

'I-' Minato relaxed a bit at the tone, a part of him recognizing it for what it was. '...Sabaku-san, please come over?' he asked gently 'If not I… I could come see you, would that be all right?'

Daichi had halted. The water had ran just as it did before and the wind blew just as normally, but… See him? That blond would come and… see him? Doing… that? The feeling washed over him like if the phone in his hand had suddenly changed into a gun. No. Only not that. He wouldn't be able to handle it. At all.

'No.' he muttered, then took a few steps back, walking blindly until he had tripped and sat down on the cold ground with his ass. The kids stirred a bit, but stayed quiet and sleeping. 'No. Don't come. I'll come over. Don't come.'

'Okay, I won't.' the man agreed immediately, more out of fear of upsetting the other if he thought him to be going where he was than anything else. He was starting to get a little worried now. 'How long do you think it will take you to get here?' he asked, looking around for the sweater he'd been wearing before going to bed. Daichi looked at his car for a moment. Then he gulped and breathed in the crispy air.

'Two-three, no. I don't know. A bit.' he muttered. He was outside the town for gods' sake. He didn't know with all the traffic jams that probably happened now.

Two, three… hours? Sabaku didn't live that far away, just forty minutes with the two buses he had to take, which in car should have been a lot less… And definitely not close enough to be two-three minutes away. He wasn't in his job because Gaara was with him and he'd already said that for some reason he didn't want to –couldn't?- bring any of his kids there, so… where was he? He wasn't slurring out words so he didn't think he sounded sound drunk either, just kind of confused upset… or high.

All of the sudden he thought of what had happened three years ago and was terrified.

'But you'll come, right?' he practically begged this time, telling himself he was wrong and stupid and pathetic, that he was imagining things and not really believing it. If anything happened to those kids, it would be his fault. 'Please don't stay there, just come and I'll promise…' what? What could he promise? A solution? A one way ticket to the French legionaries? A million dollars? '…please.'

'Yes. That's what I'm doing.' Daichi said like a robot. It was so easy to forget that through the phone nobody saw your facial features. 'I'm going back.' And with that he turned off the phone. Somehow, the idea felt heavy against his mind, like if the sudden block of ice had crawled to his stomach and lied there with all its heaviness. Without word he had opened the back door to his car and lied the kids there. Only when he had sat in the front seat, his muscles loosened up a bit.

'You're a jerk, you know that?' he said to his own reflection in the mirror. The pale man stared at him with numb expression. And after that, Daichi leaned onto the wheel and cried until he couldn't breathe through nose at all.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato stayed where he was, staring at the phone for a few moments, then slowly closed it and placed it under his pillow; as if getting I off his sight would help keep him from dialing the other man's number again. What had just happened? Nothing. You are exaggerating. Like you always do. But was he, really? That call had really been too much like a dream, so he pulled the cell from its hiding place and checked that he had, in fact, called the man and had that bizarre conversation. Okay, it had happened… but it didn't mean anything.

You were half asleep. You don't really know him and now you think you are entitled to say when that guy acts a bit freaky? It was the kids… he was just worried about them. He was barely fit to take care of one and he was about to have a fit over three others. And the man had three of them, two which were older than Naruto and they were pretty much the sweetest kid's he'd ever seen, despite all the circumstances the man must have done something right, because his wife had (declined?) died so young, too young to have a say on any of this. You are exaggerating just like you always do.

And he agreed whole-heartedly, but that didn't mean that gave him any sort of peace of mind. In fact he was sure he wouldn't have any until the man actually came… in two or three hours?

'I have to go get Naruto.' he told the empty department. It was still almost two hours earlier than the time the kids got out of kinder, but he couldn't bear even thinking about staying alone right now, not with no one else but these kind of thoughts for company. He quickly put on the sweater, checked he had enough charge in his cell and found some money on his bag. Maybe he'd go get something to make lunch, though what to actually cook was a little beyond his abilities at the moment. It would pass as soon as he was out of here, the anonymity of crowds usually calmed him down right away.

Maybe he'd just find a café and sit down to get some of the midterms his students had turned in corrected, just for a little while, at least, as long as it meant not sitting here and discussing with himself if he was acting like a nut or not, anything seemed like a welcome change.

'There is nothing of so infinite vexation as a man's own thoughts.' he muttered as he closed the door. On his way out, he told a neighbor he'd be out for a couple hours and if a man with red hair and three kids turned about, to tell him he'd be back shortly. He couldn't remember who'd said that. Too straightforward to be Shakespeare, maybe Webster…

#+#+#+#+#+#

Daichi drove slowly. But even when he had finally passed the last lights in the ultimately long traffic jam through which he had finally calmed himself down, neither of his kids woke up. It seemed that he will have to just drag them up on his hands again. He didn't really want to think about how would he explain the fact they acted like dolls or why they were all dressed like if they were going to the wedding – and why he looked like the future husband. His leg hurt like if something pierced it with thousands of little pins, and he just wanted to move… do something. Not think. At all. When he parked the car near the house, it was four hours later. Too late to even think about going back to work.

'I'm fired.' had ran through his head and for a moment he felt like crying again, but he quickly disposed of the feeling and went out of the car. Now the kids felt much more heavy and uncomfortable when he dragged them for much longer piece of space than just two meters and by the moment he pushed the button near the Uzumaki's door, he was red and sweating from all the exercising. One kid could be light, but all three of them had surely weighted like a grown up person. And lately he just didn't have strength for carrying such luggage. With a one deeper breath he moved Kankuro on his arm a little more and pushed the button once again.

The door opened before he had a chance to remove the finger, Minato stared at the whole of them with wide eyes for a second or two. Then they sagged and he smiled.

'Hi.' he said, moving aside for the man to get in. After a moment hesitation, he gestured for the three sleeping kids 'D… do you want help?' Naruto spied at the group from one corner, not jumping to go receive his friend as Gaara was, for all appearances, dead to the world. Weird day had been weird. Gaara hadn't come to Kinder and daddy said it was because he was probably sick, but then when he'd gotten home, his daddy had been acting a bit weird. Not bad or sad, just nervous. He'd look at the clock on the wall while he made food, then look at the phone over the fridge as if he waited a call. It had made the little blonde nervous a swell, but the phone had stayed quiet. At least they had chicken for lunch, and he'd actually gotten Minato to eat most of it without much of a fuss, because if left alone, his dad would just eat the noodles and leave the meat. His daddy was weird like that.

He'd known Gaara would be coming because Minato had bought ketchup that day, and the only one who put ketchup to pretty much absolutely everything he ate was Gaara, but when he'd asked, the older blonde had just answered that maybe, and looked at the clock again. They'd finished lunch, and then his dad had asked him if he wanted to play a couple games in the computer, which he hadn't really felt like, but he'd said he did just so Minato would pick him up and keep him in his lap while he played. That had seemed to get his daddy almost back to normal, but even so, he'd almost jumped when he heard the ring.

Weird. He hoped it wouldn't last long this time.

Daichi looked at them both, hesitantly, then slowly stepped in. His shoes managed to dry a bit in the car, so they didn't make weird squishing noises when he went, but still, he left footprints on the floor. He knew about that but he felt too embarrassed to admit he noticed that and at the same time, excuse himself for it. Though on his deadly pale skin in the mirror it was hard to hide the almost angry blush, so strange in comparison to his usual proud self. Such shame. But then, now his eyes didn't look so strange with all that pinkish framing. He still had no excuse for all strange situation he put them all in, so he decided not to speak at all.

'Excuse us.' he muttered only as he stepped inside and looked around like if he didn't know where he was. Then he looked in silence at his kids. He didn't want to wake them. That would be too much for his nerves now. Minato looked at the kids, all of the sudden having the strangest sense of déjà-vu, oh, hadn't he seen, felt, done this before? Hadn't he? But the kids were okay… He couldn't exactly see their lips, but their fingers were all right. A bit bitten on both older kids, but the skin under the nail was pink, not bluish, and- maybe they were just tired? Kids could sleep very deeply…

'…do you want to put them down in my room?'

Daichi stared at him for a few seconds in silence. Then he moved his head like if only now had the meaning of his words finally hit his brain. Which was not far away from the truth.

'Yes. Yes, please.' he muttered like if he was in the restaurant and asked about the seconds. But then he remembered about his shoes and didn't move an inch. At the lack of reaction, the blond waited a few moments, then hesitantly reached with a hand to take whatever kid the man felt he could spare so he could help him.

Daichi looked at him in silence, but once the blond touched the body of Temari, which was the furthest on his arms, he budged and stepped back like if the man suddenly turned into a man-eating monster. Then he frowned at himself. First, he wanted to drown them, but now suddenly… this?... He didn't understand himself. It's not like if the man was dangerous, right? But the reminiscence… for a moment, those blond hair just flashed with this darker color of sunflowers…

'I… know where is your room.' he muttered a bit impolitely and moved forward, passing the man, forgetting about shoes like if they vanished from his feet the moment he decided to move. Soon, the floor to the depth of the blond's house was covered in muddy blotches.

'That's the closet!' the younger blond called, as soon as the man was past him, giving a look at the footprints. Unlike his father, he only cared about the fact those would leave a stain. Minato however, was just looking at the footprints as if they were some extremely difficult lesson on how to learn to tap dance. It was snowing outside, but one didn't get their shoes that dirty just from stepping in the snow, unless he'd been…clearing the front of the building, by himself, in those shoes? 'Naru, why don't you go take a bath?'

Naruto, who was leaning on the couch, suddenly pretended to be immensely taken by the emulation of a Garfield game he'd found online.

'Oh… I'm busy.'

'I don't think the kids will wake up in some time, kitlet.'

'Then I'm cleaning this-'

'Naru.'

'I'm goiiing…~' with a pout and much stomping, the blond disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door behind him with a slam. The older blond followed after, his eyes set on the older man. Daichi stood in the hallway, confused, staring intensively into the room that had to belong to the kid as the surrounding was covered with childish toys and wallpaper. It seemed that he either wanted to burn a hole through the wall with his eyes or somehow, magically make it turn into the room he was searching for. Then he moved aside and closed the door, searching with his eyes for the door he hadn't unlocked before. Hopefully, he would simply just find the right room… sooner or later.

'The last one in the right.' the blond said quietly, still staring from his spot next to the closed bathroom door. The man jerked a bit, then moved quickly toward the said door.

'I know… I do.' he said like if he wanted to convince himself that he did, and not really the blond. When he saw the bed suited for an adult, he let out a sigh of relief. That was it. It was hard to tuck the first kid into the blanket while keeping the other two in them, but Daichi didn't want to let go of any of them unless he was absolutely sure they were laying just the right way. And he had some experience anyway, so it wasn't as difficult as he thought it might be. Soon, all three kids were laying under the cover with calm faces, dressed in the clothes they didn't even wear for church – not that they attended any.

For a moment, Daichi felt nothing, but normal fatherly love, the emotion that always when it came up to the surface was quickly shunned by the other things. But now, it was just there, uninterrupted. He leaned on to hug Kankuro, who lied the closest to him, but stopped in the midway as the boy stirred lightly in his sleep. No. It was better if he would just leave them like that. With one final repair of the cover he made sure they were properly hidden and went out of the room. Only then he noticed the ugly stains and grimaced. Another problem to his Mt. Everest of bad luck. The feeling of calmness once again left him like if it wasn't even there on the first place. Facing the people… he was not sure if he was ready to that. But it didn't seem like if he had any other choice.

Minato hadn't moved from where he was, simply waited for the man to come out of his room, then turned around and went into the kitchen with a soft call informing him that the coffee was ready. Once in the kitchen, he stared at the drying dishes for a moment, then reached for the kettle and filled it with water. He wanted that coffee, but he also wanted to d something with his hands, so he'd better have a tea instead.

Soon enough Daichi walked into the kitchen. The smell of coffee was more than overwhelming he felt relieved he didn't have to ask for it. When he sat down however, he felt nervous. He didn't like the silence. So quickly enough, he bended down and started removing his shoes. Far too late, but nothing better had came to his mind.

'Sorry for the stains.' he murmured with barely understandable mumble and didn't even look up.

'It's okay.' the blond said quietly, leaving a filled up cup in front of the man then the tray with sugar, but then came back to the kitchen, keeping his back to the older man. Daichi tsked. Somehow, he felt whipped by such statement. For a moment his rule of 'crime-punishment' had cracked. But he quickly composed himself and straightened. A moment later he leeched himself to the cup, not bothering to take off the socks that were also wet. But now his legs felt much better when the destroyed shoes were off. He glanced at the blonde in silence. When he stood like that with his back to him, he looked almost like… He closed his eyes. He was not thinking straight. Too much of thinking for today for him.

'What did you give them?' the younger man asked, his voice still on the same soft tones from before. 'Cold medicine?'

Daichi jumped on the seat so much, that even if he had the cup near his mouth, some coffee got spilled out of it. He felt the hot substance wetting his fingers, but he didn't dare to remove them from the cup. Instead, he just looked away and proceeded on drinking. What was that so suddenly?... It didn't matter. It was not the man's business to even ask him about it. At the noise the other man made, Minato slowly turned around, staring at Daichi with a strange expression, as if he'd gotten stuck between being accepting and horrified and couldn't lean for any of the feelings. Reaching for a rag, he moved closer to wipe at the table.

'It's not harmless. You can kill them if you give them too much.'

The other man tore his head from the cup finally and looked at the blond with something akin to shock. For a long moment nothing, but the material wiping the table could be heard. And then the corners of Daichi's lips lifted.

'Yes. Yes, I can.' he said, like if some hidden truth had been showed to him, oblivious, completely by the mistake 'You're totally right! Totally!'

With that he couldn't hold it in himself for much longer and only when the cup hit the table, the man bended forward and started laughing hysterically – so loud like he hadn't from… from ages. Because in all this situation, the blond giving him such advice suddenly seemed to be very, very funny. Why hadn't he thought about that before? He hadn't for once thought about the fact to what dangers he was putting his kids in while not even looking at the portions of med when he gave them one. Ironic! Very much!...

And when he realized that, his laughter had smoothly turned into coughing, only to come out as choking. It was hard to contain emotions once the lid was open – even if it was not open to all of them. It was really hard to not to cry when he realized what he might've done. And yet, it seemed that he still wasn't fully aware of the consequences of what he wanted to do.

The blond took several steps back and stared with the same unchanging expression, more than anything else, by lack of knowing what to do. If any of the kids had been doing what their father was, he would have hugged and tried to soothe them to the best of his abilities, only 'It will be all right' and some rocking didn't work in adults as well as it did with pre-scholars.

'…daddy?' He didn't know if to feel relieved by his son's voice or not, but he was glad it put him on movement.

'It's all right, Naru.' he said with a voice that was thankfully far calmer than he himself felt. 'If you finished, get dressed and go wait for the kids to wake up. You can put the TV on, just keep it low.' Minato then closed the door to the kitchen rather firmly, just in case his son felt like eavesdropping, not that he thought he was nowhere near done with his bath. The most likely situation w as that he'd just heard the noise and come see everything was all right. Giving the redhead on the table another look, he removed the coffee, tossed the near full cup and served another, leaving it within reach again. After another moment hesitance, he went to the fridge and served the man a glass of water and left it next to the cup.

Daichi had slowly calmed down. He still kept his hand near his mouth when the man stood the cup on the table, but he had managed t straighten himself and look vaguely sane.

'Thanks.' he blurted quietly, not really minding the kid as he never really got in touch with him and slowly drank from it. He needed that. Yes. Exactly that. Minato nodded at the other man, then turned back to the kitchen to fish a teabag from a counter, busying himself with making himself that tea he didn't really want yet was going to drink anyway. The results were a bright, candy-red infusion that smelled vaguely fruity without managing to smell sweet. Once he was done he sat on the chair opposite of the older male and waited to see if any sort of answer would come by itself.

Daichi's lips were sealed shut though. Once he felt he was not driven up the wall as he was moments ago, his set of nice walls was put up again. He didn't avoid his gaze, but didn't bend under it… yet. Minato waited first one minute, then another (actually counting the seconds while he was at it) yet when the man made it obvious he wasn't going to start by his own, he decided to ask for himself.

'What's happened?'

'Nothing much.' was the immediate answer. And as such answer, it was more than obvious it was a lie. Minato didn't look up from his cup.

'Where were you?'

'At the cemetery.' said Daichi, then let the cup rest. Considering all he was planning to do… it didn't seem false to him at all 'Looking at the graves.' (maybe ours).

'...you said you had to move here.' the blond said, still not looking up. 'And you also drugged your kids.'

'Cemetery lies on the outsides of the town, it took some time through the traffic jams.' said Daichi, once again telling half of the truth. Traffic jams were harsh this morning. 'Kids got nervous so I had to calm them down. Sometimes it's good to use some help from the science to get them quiet.'

Minato finally looked up, and instead of angry there was again that oddly sad 'One pill gets them sad. To get them asleep like that you need to give them at least three or four. Maybe five for Kankuro and Temari.'

'I did what needed to be done.' said Daichi and once again it wasn't a lie. It felt wrong, he knew. But he was not settling for more guilty than he already had now.

'Needed to be done to get what?'

'I already said that. To calm them down.' said Daichi with the same defensive tone.

'Calm them down for what?' the blond repeated, brows knitting even more 'What did you need them to be so calmed down you had to carry the three of them and they didn't even wake up?'

'To have some peace! Don't talk like if you never wanted to strangle your crying kid!' he almost shouted, and in his mind also the statement sounded quite ironic, but he didn't dare to even smile at it. Because, seriously, black humor was not so very funny in the end. The blond drew back at that as if he'd been hit, blue eyes impossibly wide. Crying? Naruto crying (crying nonstop, crying in ways it shouldn't have been possible and crying over nothing, crying even when he was fed and changed and clean and dry and just crying to show he hated him because that's the only way tiny babies had to show that they hated you and in Kushina's cd player someone sang about pulling strings and smashing dreams-)

'How can you ask me something like that…?' he whispered, the words barely audible. Daichi had only looked at him with the aggressive look of a man who lived through too much to answer and was too wounded to not be desperate.

'What, never felt like strangling your kid? Maybe you just have too little of them.' he said without a hint of sarcasm or irony. If anything, he was dead serious 'Now drop it, I already told you what I could.'

The blond did, reaching for the spoon and stirring tea he hadn't added sugar to yet, so it hardly needed the action. Daichi looked at him in silence, then relaxed slightly. Slowly, his eyes moved out from the blond's and glued themselves to the wall in front of him. Boring, but not as suspicious as the blue irises in the end.

More silence. Minato would have liked to interrupt it with anything, but he didn't really want the man to say anything else that would make him remember why he'd run from Konoha in the first place. Daichi had finally drank his water to the end and made it stand on the table once again.

'Why did you call me?' he said, feeling the anger at the hopelessness that seemed to only grow at the situation 'Now that I'm here, what do you want from me?'

Minato finally looked up, thankfully sure he wasn't going to start doing anything stupid like start crying or worse.

'I told at the kinder that your in-law might come and to keep an eye on the kids.' he winced, reaching to rub at one eye. 'I didn't say it was your in law, just that I'd seen a guy lurking around and to be careful. Naruto jumped up and said he'd already been there, and that he'd spoken with Gaara.' Touched him and called him an angel, which surely wasn't even half as creepy as it sounded to him, right? '…I was worried. I thought you should know.'

The man looked at him in a moment in the stretching silence. For a few seconds he could swear Minato was speaking Martian – he couldn't understand the slightest word. And then, the sense followed.

'Touched him and called him an angel…' continued the blond, and Daichi felt like his face paled and the warm room suddenly started turning cold, very, very cold. '…even half as creepy as it sounded to him…'

'Umgh.' he muttered, not really knowing what he wanted to say. In his widened pupils he already started seeing as the man dressed up nicely and walked on the stairs of the kinder, smiling his sweetened, honey-flavored smile, called Gaara, fed him candies, took him by the hand and while singing a 'Happy bear song' walked away somewhere where he knew they wouldn't come back from, some far away never-ever land… Suddenly it all felt too real. And before his brain and logic decided what was really right, he was already off from the table and steered toward the room where kids slept. Once he saw that yes, they were all there, three of them, sleeping, his heart calmed down a bit. But only a bit.

This time he didn't hesitate from hugging them, even if Kankuro let out an unhappy noise, obviously annoyed. He couldn't… he couldn't leave them in the kindergarten anymore. What he was supposed to do now?... The image of river flashed through his mind once again, but this time he didn't welcome it, feeling more like a slave that had no other way out and was more than anything desperate to swim through and not drown. But there was no better thing waiting for him on the other shore. There was no point to all this.

'Daddyyy!...' mumbled Kankuro, more than annoyed by the tight hug now. Daichi barely noticed the fact that the boy for the first time he was three called him 'daddy' again 'It hurts!..'

'Shut up. I'm thinking.' he muttered, not moving an inch. Kankuro didn't like that.

'Stooop thaaat!...' he whined and pushed at his arm until Daichi had finally moved. Then, with disturbed grimace he turned around and fell asleep again. The man didn't insist on another hug. He only moved his hand over the ribbons the girl was wearing and bit on his lower lip. Yashamaru surely knew how to corner him. Naruto, who was at the feet of the bed and taking the chance to watch some of the cartoons his father wouldn't normally have let him see, stared at the man with an expression that was a little too understanding for his age. It wasn't like if his father hadn't done that to him before, but he'd stopped after they moved. So much for not needing hugs, though.

Minato, who at the beginning hadn't moved until he remembered his son was in the same room, stayed by the door just looking at the obvious tortured expression the other man wore.

'From what I said…' he found himself saying. 'From what I said, they won't let him close again, even if he told them he is Gaara's uncle. 'And no one in their sane mind would let a kid Gaara's age around a grown man, especially one Gaara identified as his 'mommy'. 'You might want to speak with the kid's schools, though.' He would have done it himself, but Naruto didn't go to either of them, and that meant if he called he might end up labeled as a pervert or worse. Even so, right now the man looked like if he needed all the help in the world. Daichi nodded lightly, but even that hadn't assured him. Yashamaru was not a mere human and he was aware of that. The fact that he had got close to Gaara already without him being the supervisor of the meeting only proved that. He couldn't risk them going there anymore. But then, he couldn't just register them elsewhere. It was too much of a trouble. Also, sitting with them at home was not possible. He had work to do (unless he was fired). It just was worse than the blond thought it might have been. But it was better to not uncover it all before anyone. His problems were his own business in the end.

'Have you thought of placing an injunction on him?' the blond asked, out of not knowing what else to say. In his case, the order to keep distance hadn't kept her from calling all the time, and he'd never get rid of the paranoia, but if she had approached Naruto instead of him, he could have called the police. It was as close to a restraining order as he'd been legally able to get. 'I don't know what law is like in here, but as long as it's for the kids, and based on that he has approached them already…'

Daichi nodded blankly, then shook his head, closing his eyes. This didn't mean anything. He lived in this family for too long to get how it was done in the end.

'It doesn't matter. If he would want to get close he would, injunction or not.' he muttered quietly.

'Why is he doing this?' The man had told him before he didn't have a family, so one would have thought he'd be somewhat close to his wife's brother, at least. That neither Kankuro or Gaara seemed to even know they had an uncle showed that they hadn't been exactly close. The man slowly took the hand away from his daughter. The girl seemed to be completely unaware of what was happening around her. He turned his head to the side and looked at the blonde boy, who, for some reason, seemed to have far too understanding look in his little childish eyes. Illusion, probably.

'Why…' he repeated like a weak echo, then he slumped his arms 'I think he is just a good debtor, that's all.'

'Debtor?' Naruto, as usual when he was trying to eavesdrop, stayed as quiet as it was possible for him. He wasn't getting much from this, but maybe later they'd say something he could get. The man looked at him, then tightened his lips. Little kid intimidated him and he was far from explaining something to the little blond, especially from problems he considered too big to tell his own kids. He turned his head away and crossed his arms.

'Yes. A man who is in debt with someone else.'

Minato stared down at the little blond, then back to the other man, making a small gesture to ask if he'd rather go back to the kitchen. Daichi frowned at that, for a moment considering declining the offer, but the idea of just staying in the room with his own thoughts near the kids was not very bright also. So he stood up quietly, and went away to the kitchen, brushing the hair of little boy on the way in a gesture that could be called neither warm or caring – unless you were a Sabaku. But Daichi was not expecting from the kid to get it and did it more absent mindedly and for his own sake than for anything else. He didn't want to be mean to anyone now, even if it was a little pestering little boy.

As soon as the man let go the little blonde was busy touching his head and rubbing at it, looking after the man with a disturbed look. That had been… A LOT like when Ero-sennin did the same, doing it too rough –which he called 'manly'- and almost making it hurt rather than feel nice, but didn't say anything. When the guy and his dad left, though, he slowly moved to the hallway to make sure no one was there to see, then run back into the room and climbed into the bed, diving over the curled form of the girl to the redhead, who he started shaking.

'Gaara! Psst, Gaaa~ra!' he hissed in what in no doubt he considered a secretive voice.

The smallest from the three siblings had finally stirred, but only a bit. When his eyes opened, they were all too glassy to be sure that he saw anything through them.

''ummy.' he muttered looking at Naruto in bliss. It was visible he was ready to fall asleep again.

Naruto stared at how utterly cute looked when he was like that, again all pinkish and huge, huuge eyed…

'No, no.' grabbing the redhead, he did his level best to pull him up in a sitting position. 'Naruto. It's me, Gaara. Wake up…'

Gaara sat up on the bed groggily, looking at the blond with bleary eyes.

''uto?...' he asked quietly, then fell forward onto the blond, hugging him tightly – and along onto the bed. 'It tastes funny…' he murmured drowsily as he closed his eyes again. 'Mine…'

'Ack! Gaara!' Naruto tried to push himself back up, but all he managed was prop himself back into a sitting position, with the redhead still firmly latched to him. What was it? Sometimes it was hard to get Gaara to get up, but never like this. With an annoyed humpfs he looked down at the absurdly bright hair, reaching to pat it carefully. When there was no reaction, he looked at the forehead and the raised marks of the healing tissue in that funny shape… Very, very carefully, he ran his finger over the leftover scabs, feeling the new skin.

No reaction. With a sigh, Naruto resumed petting the soft hair. It was really nice, it reminded him of the fur of that bunny each of the kinder classes had to take care of once a month.

#+#+#+#+#+#

In the kitchen, Minato had served the man another cup and was back to his original tea, which was surprisingly more pleasant cold than it had been hot.

'You owe him money?' he was sure the man had said he'd asked for it, but the other man hadn't given it to him… The redhead, despite being shaken quite badly had only scrunched his nose and let out a small sound unclear in its meaning. Instead, the boy near him had opened one eye. But just as quickly as it happened, he closed it. It seemed they were far too deep in their sleeping to notice what was different in their surroundings. In the other room, Daichi slowly drank now lukewarm coffee with much more steady hands, but still as pale as before.

'What? Money? No…' he muttered, looking at him with somewhat lost gaze. Then he drank up from the cup a bit and tasted it slowly, not swallowing. Only a moment of silence he finally let it slide down his throat and he opened his mouth again. 'You got it wrong. I'm not the one in debt here when it comes to our relationship, he is. At least he thinks so. I don't want anything from him.' With that, he frowned and moved the cup a bit to look down at the brownish substance. 'Once upon a time our paths has crossed at one of the more unfortunate accidents… and he promised me something.'

He remembered it almost like today. The strangely dark hallway. Rain pouring down in the wet season and dark clouds covering the sky. Artificial light covering every piece of wall, so alien, so out of place. And them both, between many people and at the same time alone, the only acquaintances on the neutral grounds.

'I promise you, son of a bitch…' said the pinkish, feminine lips – so quiet and vivid at the same time '…mark my words…' Coffee mirrored his eye bags without mercy. He heard the clock ticking.

'On the day Karura – I mean, my wife died…' he muttered calmly 'He promised me to take back all her belongings with him… and in his mind that also means my kids.'

He looked up at the blond, looking at the blue eyes with tiredness. Suddenly it felt so distant like if it had never happened, but the heaviness of the memory stayed.

'Yashamaru is my wife's twin brother.' he informed, just in case if the blond didn't put the two and two together 'He never found me very… suiting for his sister. Neither before or… after the kids were born. ' he smiled sadly a bit. Bitterness crept into his voice and sat on his tongue.

'You can say he blames me for her death.' he said 'Quite a grudge, don't you think?' And he laughed, like only the man who had given up already could. Minato listened to the other's words with something that was almost a grimace.

'Your kids aren't things he can just… take.'

And despite himself, all he could think about was her, beautiful, terrible Kaho who always knew what buttons to push and always knew the way, even if she had to take a detour to get what she wanted. And because he hadn't given it to her, she'd gone after Naruto. Despite the still warmish cups, his hands suddenly felt frozen.

'…is he dangerous?' he asked, not knowing how to express what he really wanted to ask, if he would be capable of hurting this man or his nephews to get whatever he thought he needed, wanted to get. Or if he wanted, he could just take them and this man would never find them again, people with money could do that kind of things, didn't he know?

Daichi just stared at his cup of coffee.

'He took greater things than just bunch of brats.' he said quietly, then let go of the cup 'And I don't know. As far as I remembered him he always acted a bit… strange… Karura said it was just the way he was. But now he doesn't act normal. Was he normal to you? I don't like him.'

Maybe he was accusing him of too much. But purely out of instinct it was how it looked like, no more and no less. And knowing his instincts, he knew that even if he was wrong, something had to be there.

'I don't think I'm the best person to ask for such things…' The blond said, ducking his head into his tea. If someone needed a dictionary-definition of paranoid, a picture of him would pop up, for sure. And yet… '…but it's weird he came here and not to your house. We aren't even that close.'

Sure, he took care of Gaara pretty much every day for the past couple months, and of the older ones twice, but that didn't make the older man and him friends. Hesitantly, he put his cup down, staring at it with a worried frown. After a moment he pulled it up again to take another sip, but put it back down before he even made it halfway.

'He came here and invited himself in without even saying who he was or what he wanted! And the kids kept calling him mom and he just let them, he didn't even try to put them right once.' How creepy was that, seriously? But if it came down to it, it wasn't that the man had done anything horrible. Just that those were the kind of things Kaho did.

'That's how he is.' said Daichi not really sharing the outburst of the blond, as he was already used to the strange behavior of his in-law. 'That's why I avoid meeting him at all costs.' He was about to add 'if possible', but stopped himself. With Yashamaru it never really was possible in the end. He managed to lie in hiding for so long only because the man let him. And now the time of mercy was up. 'But if he gets close to kids once again, I'll kill him.'

'Don't say that kind of things.' Minato said, finally looking up. 'Do you want your kids in an orphanage? Who knows what kind of people they would end up with…'

'I said I'll kill him and not that I'll get caught. I don't plan on giving my kids to anyone.' said Daichi darkly, staring at the rest of the coffee dancing at the ends of the cup. 'It will be worth it.'

'If only it were that easy.' the blond said with a sudden bright smile, then quickly ducked his head down, as if he'd found himself doing something embarrassing. 'Just… be careful. He's trying to back you into a corner.'

Minato didn't miss what the other man did, and he thought back about how odd he'd sounded on the phone, and mostly, at how worried he'd been hearing him. It was hard to remember what exactly had scared him so badly now, but it always was in retrospective, wasn't it? He wanted to ask what had happened, but somehow didn't dare to.

'Are you all right now, then?'

Daichi at first wanted to laugh at the statement, but it was both rude and endearing. It was not like he could help it. He just felt… out of place. He looked into his cup.

'Yes, most of.' he said, not really knowing he was lying. He felt too calm for feeling to be nervous. 'Probably just fired and screwed up by in-law, but I'm all right.'

The younger man was left staring at Daichi with his mouth slightly open, apparently trying to decide if the man was saying was some sort of joke, the way he uttered the words a little too nonchalant for him to take it seriously.

'I… what? Fired?' So the man wasn't at work after all? Why hadn't he gone in the first place? Daichi had only smiled at his cup, then turned around, waving the blond off.

'Sometimes it happens. I don't know for sure.' he said, looking at the wall 'Maybe if I'll ask nicely they will let me stay.' Now that was a funny joke. But somehow it didn't sound wrong when he just kept talking. 'Maybe if I'll work for a day or two longer… yeah, they should let me stay. I was supposed to get a raise after all.' It didn't matter that nobody really remembered it was him and that it was already stolen 'It's all cool.' To the point of zero.

_And if they don't?_ Back when he'd been unemployed, at least it had been just him and Kushina. He didn't know what they would have done if she'd gotten pregnant with Naruto then, much less if they'd had three kids at their charge. And yet he couldn't say anything of this because it would be too personal.

'What do you work at…?' he found himself asking. Daichi looked at him again, the small smile still swimming back and forth on his lips, like if he couldn't decide what kind of width it should have had.

'Sound Company.' he said almost warmly 'You know, that big, gigantic building that takes up the place of three markets on the eastern shore of the town? They have their hands everywhere in the music stores. There's no stupid CD in this country that would not have their sign on the cover. Like…' He looked around and spotted the stack of lonely CDs near the radio. Some were foreign so he couldn't really tell from them, but one was indeed bough inside the country they were in.

'Here.' he said, tapping his finger on the small silvery symbol of a note on the left corner of the cover 'That's ours.' Then he smiled to himself a bit. 'You know, only the best can work for such a big place. I surely own the status I've earned.' But then his smile had wavered a bit, like if he had bit through the lemon. He left the cover in the place he took it from. 'I work at accountancy of this firm. Believe me, their finances are big enough to hire more than ten of people like me.' he muttered and sat down again 'Numbers, equations, every freaking cent that was sold and bought… I know it all. That's what I do.'

He almost wanted to say that was all he was 'destined' to do, but it wasn't true. If anything, he was destined to sit on the top while people like his boss were supposed to work for him. How strange how fate threw the people around. Minato followed the man with his eyes, a blind flash of panic sparking at the thought of anything happening to the CDs he'd kept for so many years, even if some were so old that they were jumpy- still, they had belonged to Kushina, and they were one of the few things he could still bear to keep around and actually look at, and he wanted nothing happening to them.

…but what would the man do to some old CDs anyway…? Slowly, he forced himself to relax, looking back to the tea. By now it was cold, and definitely a lot more pleasant than it had been warm. He might just make a batch and keep it on the fridge that way.

'And before that?'

Daichi blinked and looked at his cup with much more interest than before.

'Stuff.' he muttered 'Nothing that really matters.' Then he looked at the clock on the wall, not really seeming to even see the hour that was there 'I think it would be better if we got going. I sat for too long here already…'

That was a bit of an odd reaction, but considering how many secrets he himself kept, he hardly was someone who could with a clear conscience pry too much.

'Would you like to stay for dinner?' Minato asked, his eyes going to the room where the kids slept for a moment. He didn't know if they'd be awake enough for it, but their father was, though he wasn't sure if he'd be hungry. Truthfully, it was just an excuse. He felt weird letting the man go just like that now. The other man stopped and looked at the blond for a moment. Truthfully, he had nothing to eat at home right now. This decision would really make him a bad father if he were to sacrifice his kids' stomachs over his personal peace now. He didn't want the extra portion of guilty.

'I… why not.' he said, looking at his hands a bit panicked 'It's not like I have anything else to do today.'

'Great.' Finishing his tea, he picked up the cup and left it on the sink, going to the fridge to try and figure out what he could do for dinner. It was funny, how cooking for so many was more complicated in the fact he had to actually plan what to do instead of the issue being bigger portions. Opening the fridge, he started looking around to see what he had available to make for dinner, by chance remembering the bag of assorted spring rolls. Two per person… That might work, but something else… 'Do you and the kids eat saffron rice?' he asked, closing the fridge to look at the cabinets for the rice bag.

Daichi looked at him with completely lost expression. Did his kids eat what?... He barely remembered how that looked like being done.

'Sure.' he said, looking at him like if he was offering him French snails under the completely exotic name 'Sure.' But so far he was sure that even if those would be snails, oysters, frogs, ants or even the grass on the wooden stick, it won't be problematic to make his kids eat all of that. Not now at least.

'Great.' the blond was immediately taking several things from different cabinets, normal things like garlic, chili and fish sauce, then other things with a little more exotic names like turmeric and cumin, then just kind of throwing all in a rice cooker with enough thai rice for the whole of them. Which left him with throwing the spring rolls in the oven and then waiting for it all to be done. Without even pausing, he did that then reached for a fruit bowl and started washing some of them. He wasn't really planning on making fruit salad, but if he had to just stay there in uncomfortable silence, he might as well pretend to be doing something useful, right?

It wasn't long after that the little blond came back into the kitchen, his father making a face at the fact his hair was still trailing the odd drop of water. Despite it being winter, Naruto hated drying his hair and unless he did it for him, he never bothered with it.

'All done?' The little blond nodded quickly, standing on tip toe to see what his father was doing. 'They staying for dinner?'

'Yes.'

'I couldn't wake Gaara up.'

That comment made his father frown lightly, turning back to what he was doing.

'Mh… he must be really tired.' Luckily, Naruto didn't seem to notice that he hadn't been able to wake the other siblings either. Sighing disappointedly, Naruto nodded and climbed into the seat his father had recently vacated, propping his chin up on his hands and turning to stare at the dark-haired redhead, legs kicking lightly at the edge of the seat.

The other man tossed him a serious glance, signaling that he noticed the kid, but it was lost as fast as it came, signing also the fact he wasn't very affected or interested in little blond. Only after a moment the second glance came, with a light frown and stayed longer on the kid.

'Your hair's wet.' he said quietly, then glanced at Minato. But Mr. Uzumaki didn't seem to be bothered much by it. Which was strange considering the fact it was winter and no matter if the kid went out or not it was risky to let him wander around like that. From experience he knew that little kids tended to choose just the worst spots to be at especially at the moments when they really shouldn't be there. So Naruto probably would go to play somewhere where the window wasn't closed, knowing kids' ideas.

'You should get them dried.' he said, despite the fact he was against telling other people how to make their kids act. But it was stronger than him 'You will get sick.' The comment about Gaara not waking up didn't surprise him much as he knew that he just gave them too much of meds to quiet them down for quite a long time. But it never really hurt to check. Especially if the company was so silent like this one. He stood up from the chair and was about to go out, but the little blonde disturbed him, so he stopped.

'You heard me? Go dry yourself.' he repeated. The blond didn't react other than pouting at the older man.

'I don't want to….' The fact he didn't say aggressively didn't change at all the fact that he had no intention of doing it either way. Drying his hair was always annoying and he hated doing it, and besides his hair was short. It'd dry by itself in a little while.

'Dry it or I'll get the hairdryer, Naru.' his father said, a distracted little smile playing on his lips. He didn't need to look to know the horrified face his son was doing, Naruto hate that machine with a passion. As all answer the blond let out a drawn out whine and slumped on the table dramatically, face down. 'Naruto.'

'But I'm all slumped…' Minato's smile widened at that.

'I'm sure divine inspiration will help.' An ever longer whine. It took several seconds but eventually the little kid peeked at the older man over the edge of his arm. His father was giving him a rather unimpressed look.

'I'm going…' Minato just shook his head and distractedly messed the wet locks as his son passed by, prompting the younger kid to dash for the bathroom. Daichi watched him go with stoic face.

'Charming.' he stated in the end with rather unimpressed tone, and moved away to look at his own kids. It was not his thing to look after the brat after all. When he got to the bed, the three of his kids was sleeping just as he left them. It took him a moment to notice that black eyes of Kankuro weren't exactly closed when he was laying like that, completely unmoving while he checked for his siblings' temperature. 'Kankuro?...' he asked, laying his hand over the head of the boy. In comparison to the other kids, his face was rather pale and clammy.

'Dad…' he blurted, watching him 'I don't feel too good…'

Daichi bit on his lip. Then he slowly peeled off the kid from the cover. The other kids didn't wake from that.

'Can you get up?...' he asked, even if he saw that the kid couldn't. Kankuro only lied and watched him with unhappy stare.

'I feel strange… weak.' said the boy, correcting himself. 'Not really… dad.'

'What?'

'I think I'm gonna puke.'

'Hold on then.'

Next thing Daichi did was rather simple for such procedure. He took the kid in his arms and walked around in directions he remembered faintly from his last visit. Once he found a toilet, Kankuro, despite claiming weakness, stood on his own and vomited bits of his breakfast into the toilet seat. Not a very joyous experience.

'Is that enough?' he asked after a moment when the kid just stood over there. The boy nodded quietly. Daichi flushed the toilet down. 'Okay. Let's get to the kitchen and see if you can wash the taste with something. Okay?'

'I'm not… really hungry.' said Kankuro weakly, but didn't protest when the man picked him up. He seemed to be too much shaken or apathetic to actually ask where they were. Maybe that was better. The man slowly proceeded to kitchen, stopping for a moment only to look at the little blond through glass of the door. Naruto really seemed to be slacking into his hair drying.

'Dry them and don't play with that towel.' he said through the door and entered the kitchen again.

'I aaam!' the blond said, suddenly bending over and starting to rub at his head with a lot more effort than what he'd been doing previously, though he didn't protest much, Kankuro seemed to be sick and he got the feeling his dad wasn't in a state to be bothered.

For a moment Daichi though he must've looked quite strange – both of them dressed like if they were going to get a special photo shoot. But he waved it off quickly. Kankuro looked at the blond man quietly.

''lo.' he muttered. Daichi looked at him, both unhappy with the manners and concerned with the tone of the voice. But he decided to keep it to himself. He sat down at the table. 'Is there anything sweet available to drink?...' he asked carefully.

Minato stopped what he was doing, turning to give Kankuro worried look, then washing his hands lightly.

'_Dzień dobry_, Kankuro.' he said, giving the little boy a small smile. 'Excuse me…' he said, giving the older man a questioning look for a moment. He crouched down to his height, he gave the boy a searching look, then reached for one of his hands and checked the nails again.

'How do you feel?'

Kankuro had only shrugged, not really protesting when his hands were picked up.

'Just sick.' he muttered and leaned with his back into his father's torso 'Why are we here, dad?...'

'We came to visit.' said Daichi quickly, maybe a bit too quickly. But the kid didn't seem to notice. 'Tell me if you're going to feel worse, okay?' The boy had nodded lightly, but without much enthusiasm to it. He felt just like when he was dared to eat a living worm. It was such a bad moment in his life that in those days there was still meat ion dinners at home. He remembered puking it and all that he ate seemed to be made of worms for him.

'Can you breathe okay?' The skin under his nails still seemed to be normal color... dropping them, he brushed the boy's bangs off his eyes and moved back up. Kankuro once again nodded, visibly appalled about having to do anything at all and scrunched his nose a bit, like if he was about to sneeze, but he didn't. Daichi moved his hand over the boy's hair, more out of an instinct than of paternal gesture. But Kankuro seemed to not even notice he was given any kind of coddling.

'Sorry.' said the man, seeming to both concerned and embarrassed about the whole situation. 'For troubling you.'

'It's all right…' the blond said distractedly as he handed the brunet the half full cup and staying close in case he forgot how to hold it right. 'You should check on the other two. If their nails look blue or they are breathing too fast, we should take them to the hospital.'

The older man nodded, once again moving his hand over the boy's hair. He really didn't want to take them to the hospital, since the valid reasoning for their state would be probably questioned and sooner or later the police would knock to his door, but if their life was on the line, he had no choice.

'I will.' he said with ghastly tone. 'Kankuro, will you sit here alone for a moment? I'll be right back.'

The boy only nodded, drinking the juice, so he left him and came back to the room where his kids laid. To his surprise, he found once again three kids inside – and this time two of them were blonde. He eyes the unhappily trapped Naruto, but did nothing to help him. If Gaara 's got a hold on him like that it could only mean he woke up and stayed awake long enough to actually do this to the blond. In silence, he started looking over Temari's unmoving hands. They looked pinkish, rose colored for him. No changes. At least that one was good.

Naruto gave him a sort of accusing look for the lack of help, but out of pride or simple hesitance to address the older man he didn't ask for it either. He'd just ran back to the room to check on those things his daddy had said to make sure no one would need to go to the hospital but when he'd shaken Gaara awake enough to look at him the redhead had sort of tackled him (or more like fallen on top of him) and he was too heavy to get off. At least it meant he was good enough not to have to go to the hospital again.

He stayed where he was, staring at Gaara's dad while he stared at Temari, and there was something so familiar about the way he looked he couldn't help but ask.

'Are you sick too?' For someone mean and scary, the older redhead looked a lot like his daddy did after the bad phone calls, only without the crying. Daichi looked at the little boy, seeming to be distracted from his checking, though inside the sudden panic attack caught him for a nanosecond. In the tiniest of moments his muscles tensed to the point he could run to the end of the world without a single moment of stopping. Then he relaxed and looked at the kid in the timid expression that looked disturbed and shy, though in his very own opinion it was careless and manly. And maybe, back in the days when he didn't look like his own shadow, it was.

'Yeah, maybe I am.' he muttered, then left the small hand lying on the cover. Then he shook the girl a little, getting a tiny sound of disapproval. Maybe he was. But if he was then it was really no good. He didn't want to think about it. What if he was? He wouldn't be able to live with it. Such complex problem would be too much to his simple problems already. 'Get back to sleeping.'

'I wasn't sleeping.' the boy complained, lifting a hand then letting it drop in a childish sort of gesture of helplessness. 'I tried to wake Gaara up and he did, but then he grabbed me.' And Gaara was stronger than he looked. And made annoyed noises when he tried to move.

'Are you staying?'

The older man looked at him for a moment but still didn't do a slightest thing to help the kid. To tell the truth, now he didn't even intend to. Naruto looked quite entertaining like that. In his place Gaara would probably already start sniffing.

'No, I'm going back, I just came to check on my children.' he said and smiled a bit. The redhead seemed to be still a bit too sleepy to take care of what the blond was doing to him. 'It seems you'll have to think about sleeping as for now.'

'But it's too early!' the blond complained, giving a mighty push to get himself into a sitting position, only to fall back in place as the redhead's more advantageous position forced him back 'And I haven't had dinner yet! Gaara!' he shook the redhead, grabbing him by the shoulders. 'Gaara, wake up, Daddy's making dinner!'

The redhead opened his eyes hazily, but only something quite close to unreadable mumble escaped his throat. He looked at the wall for a moment, then closed his eyes again. Daichi looked at him with his lips bitten by his upper teeth. This was not looking by any means healthy. If anyone saw him like that they'd probably think he was drugging him on constant basis. Finally, feeling a bit (but only a bit merciful) he took the redhead up (who clung a bit to Naruto, but only in the weak goodheathened state) and propped him up in his arms. The kid immediately curled up into a ball, as he used to since birth, hiding himself mostly from the sight of the light.

'There will be tomatoes.' he muttered quietly. The kid had only mumbled something, suspiciously close to 'so what' (but it could as well mean 'hurray') and didn't move from his position, his lips lightly working like if he was intending to suck on a thumb. Thankfully to that savage behavior, his hands were quite far away from his mouth. With a worried look, the man lied his kid back down on the bed. It seemed that for this time it would take awhile for them to have a need for dinner.

'Then we will go without you. Come on, kid.' he muttered, looking at the blond as he got up 'They won't be eating with us now.'

Naruto wasted no time on escaping the bed and the redhead's clutches. Really, Gaara had no excuse to want him there, he had his sister right next to him, so he was just making him stay out of stubbornness or something. Really, having a best friend was a lot of work sometimes. Still, he stayed at the foot of it, giving the pair a look and wondering if it really was all right for them to be left alone like that, then picked the quilt folded at the edge of the bed and wordlessly offered it to the kid's father.

The man looked at him for a moment with the expression that was hard to read – if one was old enough maybe he would find the word 'sloshed' appropriate, and even then hardly. But then it was quickly gone, replaced with solid mask of a hardworking man as he took the quilt and made a quick covering for his kids. They didn't seem to notice the change in the surroundings at all. Such a strange kid the blond was, he mused. Then, with only a glance he moved away from bed toward the nicely warmed up kitchen. Dinner was another of those moments in life that made Minato painfully aware that he has never been meant for socializing at any sort of level or with any sort of crowd.

Kankuro was obviously still feeling unwell, his father was busy doing whatever mental recounting of something that was probably less than pleasing and eating automatically what was in the plate. As such, it wasn't odd that he was immensely grateful to have Naruto around, because if there was one thing the little blond couldn't stand was silence. Sure, he was filling it the sort of conversation you expected from a four-year-old (what they'd done in kinder that day, how he'd ended up having to pair with stupid Sasuke because Gaara hadn't gone to school that day and that he was pretty sure he'd seen a giant red frog smoking a pipe in his closet) but it was conversation and nowadays, it was the only one he was used to.

He'd wanted to ask the man if he wanted to take the leftovers with him, for the kids that were still sleeping, but he couldn't make himself do it in the end. It would just be humiliating for the other, even if he didn't mean it that way, that at least he knew from his own experience. He settled for helping him carry the kids down and to the car afterwards, even though the man didn't look like he wanted to let him. Unfortunately, he also didn't look like if he had enough strength for three kid sat the same time either, so Minato was left carrying a rather complacent (that is, lax) Kankuro down the set of stairs and into the car, then helped the redhead buckle the sleepy kids up.

'Ah, Sabaku-san…'

The other man stopped for a moment, looking at his three buckled up kids. The cold was now frost biting, but without the wind, so the eerie atmosphere was clear, crispy and pretty much taken from another dimension since the snow shined like if it was made of silver and crystals (or silvery crystals since cold light of the lamps were reminding him nothing but the hospital's surgeon light). Even the blond looked quite surreal with all those puffs of mist coming from his mouth and light hair shining with a halo.

'Almost like a fairy.' he thought quietly. He remembered one of Kankuro's school books. Mostly he read the stories about pirates and wizards, but there were also two or three with knights in shining amours saving beautiful princess'. In one of them the beautiful maiden turned the puppet into a living boy – and since Kankuro was obsessed with him reading it as a goodnight story, he remembered the blonde fairy quite well. But he didn't say anything of that out loud. Instead he closed the back door to the car and looked at the other man with blank face.

'Yes, Mr. Uzumaki?'

The younger man bit his lip for a moment, then seemed to suddenly become aware of what he was doing and straightened.

'I know we are not close, but…' one hand reached up and fingered the necklace that was currently hiding under his pullover, that simple gesture to let out a bit of the nervous energy he always seemed to get in these kind of situations that required of him to say what he meant to. 'Well, you can call me if you need to.'

And of course, that's not that he meant, but he hoped it was close enough.

'If you need help, or anything else, just… you can call me.'

And it sounded stupid, but if he hadn't had Jiraiya for him when Kaho decided to turn back in his life, he'd probably have something drastic. Daichi looked at him in silence.

'Yes.' he said finally with squinted eyes. His face looked like if the wind blew right into his eyes, as it was scrunched up so much, but it seemed grotesque in the quiet atmosphere of the evening. 'Yes. Thank you.'

And with that, he got into the car and without another glance, he drove away.

'Yeah... that went well.' the blond muttered to himself, staring after the car for a moment, then hugging his arms. Better to go back. It was cold outside, and he had a kid in the house he'd left unsupervised that was probably right now trying to climb into the washing machine.

'Yes. That went well.' was what muttered Daichi for himself as he drove through the empty, icy streets. 'Completely not as it was supposed to be.'

Kankuro had only stared at him in the mirror blankly, but beside that the only answer were the sound of a working engine and quiet shushing sounds made by the passing cars. So yes. That went well. When he finally got to the parking grounds it was already a late hour and Temari started to wake up, which made her finally stand on her own legs. She didn't seem to understand much, but as far as it went, she didn't even open her mouth. She only looked at him with scared, wide eyes that only in such times made her look like a girl and quietly walked behind him and Kankuro.

He didn't try to say anything. He had another of the three to carry in his arms. Yes. That also went well. When he had finally opened his house the silent creek and the stench of the flat that was not conditioned welcomed him with silence that seemed to be both known and strange. Two oldest kids quietly walked up to their room where they slowly undressed from the fancy clothes (now all mauled and dirty) and prepared to brush their teeth. Everything went well. And then Gaara woke up.

'Mommy?' he said at the very first, looking at him with wide, green eyes, and from that single look Daichi knew that it was beginning of the troubles. 'Mommy?...' he chirped like that for a moment, looking around, obviously confused and surprised about what he saw, like if they hadn't been living in that hellhole for two years now. He didn't even have strength to say a word against that, so he only let go of the redhead and walked up to the kitchen to wash his hands. Such a trivial function to do to not do anything else.

'Mommy? Mommy, where are you?' could be heard all around the house. For a moment two scared and resigned faces of the older siblings could be shown – they knew and they didn't dare to say a word, leaving him with the mess he did himself. They walked up to their own rooms in silence like little robots, not annoying him, not disturbing him, not doing anything. The soap in Daichi's hands moved very fast now, bubbling up in the running water, wasted, washed away.

'Daddy? Where's mommy?' he heard behind himself as he kept on nailing his own hands with his eyes. He didn't dare to turn around 'You said we will meet up with mommy! Where is she?'

'Gaara…' he said in a quiet tone, surprised it sounded so calm and aghast at the same time 'Gaara…'

'You said she will be here! You said we will meet up with her!...' he closed his eyes. 'You promised!' He scrunched his face into the pained mask that twisted his hands too sharply and the soap landed on the bottom of the kitchen's sink. It looked almost edible, the glicerioidal piece of transparent pink mix of natrium and magnesium. It hurt. His own mistakes stabbed him in the back and hurt so much.

'Your mother…' he muttered quietly, oh so quietly, that nobody, even his own ears could catch the words 'She…'

'Where is mommy? Mommy!... I want to mommy!...' said the little kid and there was a moment where chirps turned into high pitched cries of disappointment, sadness and – the most of all – yearning for what was not there.

'Your mother!...' he muttered, now holding the sink with both of his hands as his voice died in his own throat, like if the words grew in his mouth, the font turning into branches and sound into leaves, stuffing his mouth with gritty taste of loss, despair and haunt '… Karura…' For a moment he saw her, blonde hair, brown eyes, smiling at him, laughing, in that plain green dress that meant everything and nothing as it was the first fancy dress he bought her and the first promise he broke – she was supposed to wear much more of them. That one was the one in which she was buried for lack of better clothes.

'You lied! You lied to us! You told she will be here!...' howled the hot, shrill screams, pregnant with tears. He turned around, facing them, the crying kid who didn't look at him and didn't even have to – his whole existence was a big, screaming mark, an accusation in itself.

'Your mother is dead. She is very, very dead.' he spoke, but his calm voice drowned in another cry that was left out of the kid's mouth. For a single moment he felt the helplessness so big that he wanted to just walk up to the snotty brat and hit him, hit him until he understood, until he stopped crying, until he finally got the truth- and with a blink of an eye the moment was gone. The dark, grey emptiness flew and covered everything with clouds that seemed to overwhelm everything.

'She is dead.' he repeated and turned around to turn off the tap. The meaningless cry of unfairness sounded loudly as he moved away, the kid following him close as he moved to the sofa in the room, where he sat in silence, staring at the blank screen of the TV that didn't work from months.

'You lied to us! You lied to us again! I hate you! I want mommy! Mommy!...' wailed the kid in the silent room, where nothing, not even ticking of the clock interrupted him. Daichi blinked, hunching down as the grayness ate and consumed his world even more with patient, suffocating bites. He didn't know what to do anymore.

'I miss you.' he muttered quietly to no one as the redhead kept crying. The light from the kitchen shone in his eyes in unnatural, sick glistening.


	18. 18: Snot

_AN: With this chapter the rating of the story rates to M. __It contains sexual behavior of adults – feel warned and read further at your own risk. Thank you._

The next day came quietly, waking Daichi up in wonder of what's happened, the genuine surprise that he didn't think he'd be able to ride away. He remembered in clear facts what really had happened and yet it all felt like distant dream. His children kept on looking at him with faces that seemed to be too old and too understanding and that was disturbing, but then the babyish face of Gaara who still didn't understand anything and immediately, after waking up, started to cry again also was bad. Everything was not all right. But he moved his body in the motion like if it was programmed and it moved, surprisingly. So even when he drove the all pink from crying kid to the kindergarten, where absolutely not amused Asuma waited, he still didn't stop to think, to wonder or to analyze.

He just moved forward. At work however, he had to get out from his bubble. Not because anyone wanted him to. The bubble broke up on itself. It felt too unsafe to just walk to his office like if nothing has happened. So he scurried there like a weakest burglar. It felt too strange to open and lock the door to the place that didn't change at all even if he suspected it would be all cleaned with the big letter written on top: 'You're fired' in vivid, floristic red. It felt too awkward to see Baki and greet him without getting any special note of 'You're fucked' or 'You screwed up' muttered here and there. Not a glance of his boss walking around to meet him in the eye was also strange. Strange and uncomfortable.

He was supposed to be fired. Heck, he expected to be fired. No man of his kind could stay on the stool after doing something like he did. So, when the telephone had finally rang at the two o'clock, he looked at it with almost feeling of relief. There was nothing worse than to be left hanging in unknown.

'Sabaku no Daichi speaking.' he said, not really counting the money and not really understanding anything. He felt too surreal for that. The impact was not reaching him at all. Only when the voice in the phone didn't sound with the oily sweetness that always ran off the biggest company chief's tongue like a venom from snake's mouth, it finally did.

'Oh, is it the 'Dirty laundry' porno shop?' And some snickering. He looked at the wall in front of him, dumbfounded.

'Excuse me?' he asked.

'Quick! Now you have to hang the phone!'

'What? Already? I thought that-'

'Just hang it, stupid!'

Beeping. Daichi looked at it in confusion, then slowly laid the receiver down. Kids. Prank calling to random number. He bit his lips. It was past the two in the afternoon and nobody asked him to move from his seat. Maybe gods were forgiving after all.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato really wasn't what Tobirama had been expecting, considering the rather large stack of files he had needed to go through. Over the years in practice he had had a few patients with similar diagnostics, but for some reason the blonde stuck him out as an oddity.

Yes, he didn't look as young as he really was, but he didn't look that much older either, but the signs of fatigue around the man's eyes weren't deep enough to be a concern (and were actually perfectly understandable with the man having two jobs and one of them being a university teacher on the middle of the arriving finals, not to mention a small son to raise alone), his hands were free of scars save the occasional one that spoke of clumsiness around kitchen, rather than self harm and if his nails were trimmed short, there were no signs of him biting them or the skin around them.

In fact, unless the blond was a cutter, which so far he had shown no sort of inclination to be as far as analysis went; the blond didn't just look healthy but downright damn attractive, if his secretary's reaction at his entrance had been any sort of clue. He had almost had to kick her out of his office when Makoto took a little too long on serving the blond his tea. The room they were now in was one of the two offices in the department, and was decorated to his tastes in comfortable wood furniture and cream cushions and walls, but all this relaxing atmosphere seemed to be wasted on the man sitting on the couch across him, as he was sitting ramrod straight on the couch as if maybe resting his back on it might electrocute him.

This wasn't very surprising, either. He'd gone as far as to contact the man's previous psychologist and Sarutobi had been kind enough to give him some clues as to how to deal with his patient and kindly warned him not to label Minato as antisocial too soon. Minato, as it was, wasn't an unpleasant person to deal with, or even scared of having to talk with others, but he *was* a person who tended to get easily nervous and had problems relaxing. As it was, he did his best to smile as warmly as possible once he'd gotten the blonde seated and started trying to get to know his new patient better.

'Uzumaki-san, I'm glad you could make it today, I apologize for the delay, but I didn't really clear my schedule for this hour until very recently.'

'Oh, no, please, it's all right.' the blond replied quickly, reaching for the cup and handling it carefully as if he wanted to warm his hands. 'I wasn't that hurried, and I really needed this hour, I'm very thankful for you making the time to work with me.' He was somewhat disappointed for the barely detectable accent. It was true the blonde had lived practically all of his childhood in Wind country, but after living in Konoha and Fire country, he would have expected the accent to stick a bit more. He'll, he'd even some clips from back then, by which he meant he'd sent Makoto to the library to get information about his new patient. She has easily found the information about the newspapers. He wasn't sure it had ever made first page, but it had been big enough of a new back then he remembered it had had more than one week's worth coverage.

'So this schedule is all right with you?'

'Yes, it suits me fine.' the blond said quickly enough, taking a sip of the tea, then adding a soft 'thank you.' Well, it seemed it would take a bit more than some gentle leading to get the blonde to start talking.

'You work today, is that right?'

'Yes.' he waited, but nothing more came, and it really was easy to see how more anxious the other became the more it stretched. So, conversation would take a lot more than just gentle pushing.

'You are working at the Suna's community College, right?'

'Yes, I'm… I'm working there.' Another sip. He refused to give up so easily.

'I always seem to pass it on my way to hat sweet Chinese restaurant downtown, but I never quite remember where- It's across Shodai street?'

'No, across Nidaime.'

'But isn't Nidaime opposite to traffic?'

'No, turning at the Akashi street it turn right hand.'

'And you go by bus there?' he asked incredulously. 'In the afternoon the traffic is horrible.'

'Yes.' and then, miracle of miracles, the blond smiled. It was just a moment, and he quickly covered it with another sip of tea 'It's terrible, that's why I go an hour or so earlier and get some things for class started and help the kids that get there earlier to ask things.'

'You are teaching literature?'

'Yes.'

'That's' nice.' Unless he was seeing things, his back *had* brushed the inviting cushiness of the back rest of the couch. 'I thought about following it myself back when I was deciding what to work at, but then we had to take "The Sun Also Rises" and I had to give up.'

'Really? I rather like Hemingway.'

'I found him to be a bit stiff and I couldn't follow the trips all that well.'

'They didn't go to that many different locations.'

'No, but when the Fiesta starts it's hard to follow the line and I didn't like the ending either.' The blond frowned a bit at that, looking down at his tea coup, then nodded slightly.

'I suppose it is a bit disappointing by today's standards.'

'It was anticlimactic.' he said, narrowing dark eyes slightly. The blond narrowed his own back.

'You expected Jake to fight with Romero over Brett?' he asked, somehow making the suggestion sound silly even though that had been what he'd thought would happen at the time.

'Truthfully he was mooning so much over him during the bullrace I expected him to leave Brett and elope with Romeo.' he said slyly instead, causing the blonde to jerk back slightly, touching the back of the couch in the process. Minato stared at the older man a moment, then started laughing. It was a surprisingly nice sound, Tobirama decided, and as the blonde didn't straighten again from his position, he decided things might just work out after all. 'So, what sort of things are they using to torture future writers with nowadays?'

#+#+#+#+#+#

One, two, three- tap. The pencil had finally lied down. The saffron haired man looked at the graph he spent drawing with the ascetic precision and lied the sheet down. He was supposed to end that three days ago and it was still void of legend and various unknown numbers that were supposed to show the way the company worked for past half of the year. Nobody asked him for it yet so he believed he could as well work his arse off till he could, You never knew on what mistake your be or not to be belonged.

Today though he didn't hurry at all. He measured the lines in the precision of an artist who has whole life to draw whatever he wanted before the suicidal jump from the cliff. At the end of the day he had done the work he'd normally make in two hours, but for once he was actually happy about the results. That's how all graphs should've looked like all the time. Though the everlasting nervousness still glinted in the back of his mind, making him feel little jumpy. Nobody for once had looked into his office, no phone had rang for him, nothing. Even Yura acted like if he didn't see him waving the piece of paper at him. This was too odd.

And now it was nearing the standard nine o'clock when he sneaked out home if he could get away from it. It seemed that nobody wanted him for anything so he could as well get away from there. But just when he was about to button up his suit, the light knocking on the door sounded off on the other side of lightened office. Baki? He thought, not really believing that the man would stay for so long in work. He never did. Yura?...

'May I?' asked the smooth oily voice and then the glass door opened, revealing the thin shaded figure covered in the mass of black hair. _Sadako_ he thought in silence, feeling how his throat tightened and a sudden thrill ran down his legs. Suddenly the temperature dropped and became much more suffocating at the same time. But he didn't say any of those.

'Boss.' he said in a tone that was vaguely normal and indifferent 'Yes, please. I was about to…'

'Leave? Oh, Mr. Sabaku, Mr. Sabaku.' was the answer as the other man entered the room. There was something ugly hidden in his sweetened laugh, like a worm in the juicy pear. Daichi noticed that he was wearing his standard lilac suit and automatically moved aside. He could never trust this color for once he learned what kind of man his boss was like. The black-haired male walked in silence and carelessly sat down on his seat, instantly making him feel like a guest in his own office. 'I'm sure you can give me a minute or two of your time? Please.'

_It's an order_, he heard. He swallowed the saliva that seemed to dry in his mouth and moved, loosening his tie a bit as he sat down on the chair for guests.

'Of course.' he muttered, feeling another chill running down his spine as the yellow – no, golden eyes of his boss looked at him with amusement, just as sweet and pregnant with hideous surprises as his voice pierced through him 'Wha… what is the matter you'd like to talk with me, sir?'

He played dumb. The other man didn't even move a muscle of his face when he lightly spun his body on the wheel-chair. His eyes shone lightly in the surgeon light of the bulbs from the new age. He played dumb and the other knew he did. Very well.

'I don't think I should explain anything to you, right, Mr. Sabaku?' said the oily sweetness, dripping with venom. 'Should I?' Daichi didn't dare to speak up. The man crossed his delicate pale fingers in the small pyramid of content and kept on moving from side to side with his legs on the office's chair. The smile wavered and changed into the musing expression. He didn't think he was supposed to answer that.

'To make things light, short and clear… you've been hopping around like a little bunny. A carrot here, a carrot there and the work was never properly done.' continued the other male. Daichi bit his lips. Yeah, right, a carrot. Show me my carrot from the last three months, then we will talk about payment. 'And I already told you at the very beginning… do you remember what I told you then, Mr. Sabaku?'

He blinked, then moved his eyes toward his hands. Somehow, he posed them onto his upper legs, like a little schoolgirl that was being reprimanded in school by the teacher.

'That you- (I hate) -eat small mammals for dessert.' he responded with the blank tone. The other man looked at him for a moment with the same musing expression, then he suddenly stopped the twirling and leaned over the desk like if he was telling him the biggest secret. Suddenly, the rich smell of _Fleur du Male_ cologne hit his nostrils and held his breath not to gasp. He hated the smell of those perfumes to the point of impossibility.

'That's right. That's what I exactly did. And we had a deal, Daichi.' said the black-haired man, suddenly changing his tone into the friendly, but still too cold for an actual friendship, tone 'You said that you'll become a shark of the business, and I told you that you can work here. Really, Daichi… what were your intentions?'

_I wanted to get money._

'Those are only sudden hardships I have to go through to get into my real self-' he said quickly. Like eating, sleeping, money… but of course that couldn't be said. '-I just need more time to…' He stopped. When he rose his eyes at the man, the golden stare looked at him, nailed him and weighted upon him without the tiniest mark of understanding. Only the look of a god that had been disappointed but didn't care too much to be angered.

'Really, what should I do with you, Daichi?' he asked, like if the saffron haired man didn't speak at all 'I was looking at you through my fingers as of lately, but when you suddenly left yesterday hanging like that…' _I was preparing to die, you son of a bitch. Sorry that I managed to get out alive of it._ 'You do understand that I can't do much.' He muttered in the low tone. Daichi felt the panic arising in him, like a sharp chaotic fly of a group of birds that started to bang in the walls of his stomach so suddenly.

'Boss, I-'

'You really gave me no choice.'

'-I will become better!-'

'I'm really sorry to do that, Daichi… no, Mr. Sabaku-'

'I need this job!' he screamed out of his lungs, standing up from the chair. The other man followed his face with his gaze, but nothing else had happened. The building at this time seemed to be vaguely empty and only a light whistling of the cleaner kept on informing them that on the second floor someone was actually there. And someone not very interested in what was happening anywhere else, to be exact.

The black-haired male smiled with the content, ugly smile, like a cat who got his cream and was now very happy that there were living mice hidden in it.

'You really can't beg, Daichi.' he said, squinting his eyes in the maliciousness 'I'm the one giving commands here, you forget that easily too- sometimes it even seemed like if you were supposed to be the leader who'd fallen off the high stool. Get your things and get out.' The other man stood in silence, breathing heavily, like if the last scream took too much effort from him. For a moment the silence emerged.

'What?' he asked finally in the aghast tone. The black-haired male closed his eyes and leaned his head over his propped up kneaded hands, hiding a bit of his lower face behind the mockery of a praying pose.

'I'll make it plain for you… how do people around here say it?' he stopped, pretending to be lost in thought. Daichi breathed, outraged. 'You can't suck this black-haired boss of a bastard up. You're fired. Get out.'

The whistling got through the silence for a moment, very clear and very strengthened, echoing even through the closed door. Daichi breathed in and out and closed his eyes. So. That was it. The supreme defeat. He turned around sharply, barely concealing his inner chaos as he grabbed blindly his case and marched up with loud steps to the door- …and he stopped.

No. He was not going down like this. He gave the man too much of himself to let the company walk off like that. He slowly turned around, letting his briefcase go. The other man was still sitting on his wheelchair, propping his arms on his desk in his office. This looked quite too much like their first meeting, the famous getting the job – he was then just as desperate, just as needy and he was ready to even climb mountains to get anything worth his knowledge, anything- ('I won't believe your theories until you'll open this window and fly away like a Peter Pan.' So he opened the window and marched up the short distance of two meters around having fourteen levels of air below him. And he got that job.)

And now, the man was not only firing him. He was looking the same – giving him the chance he almost threw away.

'Oh.' he said in a wonder, like a little kid who read the words of a play, wanting to sound surprised but not sounding like that at all 'I can suck everything up. To the last droplet.' And he walked up to the man and pushed him along with the chair, only to kneel in front of him and start undoing his pants. The surprised look on the other man's face was priceless. With the smile frozen on his lips he looked like if he was about to have a heart attack. Daichi undid his buckle and looked up at him in the steely glare. When the shocked expression of the other man's didn't waver, he pulled the zip of his jeans. That was surely going to make anyone wake up from the surprise.

And it did. Only not in the way he thought it would.

'Really?' said the other man, suddenly smiling with the savage smile, almost too amused to not to laugh but still not amused enough to chuckle 'Let's see that then.' Daichi's ego suddenly tined down in fear. Challenge. He felt the challenge in that voice. Let's see how far can you go to impress me to make me change my mind. He knew the man was serious and that he gave him a chance. But this… this… Once again he acted without thinking and what he did was very… very stupid.

'I-…' he started, feeling his mouth going completely dry from the fear gripping his throat. 'I'm sor-'

'So you don't need that job?' said the man. Daichi saw his chance slipping away. Without response he grabbed the other man's pants and pulled at it, making the underwear appear and looked at it determined. No. No, I need this job. I need it. But… but… how far was far enough? Where was the red light? He knew that from now on anything could have happened – from accusation of molestation to actually getting back what he needed for very little price if he measured his courage far enough. His boss was a cruel man known of pushing people as far as they could go and he stopped only when it was enough for him. It was dangerous to play danger game with such a dangerous man.

He felt his hands beginning to shake.

'I can't hear the answer.' was sneered at him from up above. Immediately he moved his hands toward the underwear and pulled at it with nervous movement, revealing the long, pale shaft. And suddenly he realized it was there. That the other man's genitals really were there. Oh gods. He was not touching it. He was never, ever going to touch it. He was going to run away. Was it not enough for his boss? Was it not? The still observant golden glare spoke for itself. He felt his insides churn. He was going to touch it. In the end, he was going to- Ugh- So gay- He couldn't- Why was he doing it- No man should get down so much- He had his pride, dammit- …but his family was more important.

With shaking hands, feeling like if he was sweating with fear he slowly reached for the other man's shaft like if it was going to bite him fatally. He didn't dare to glance up, but he knew, he knew that all this was amusing his boss, amusing so much that he was still wanting to push him even more and see him writhe in pain and see him beg. He breathed in and out like if he was sick, feeling his heartbeat beating in alarm, making him ready to leap at any sign that could mean he could let go and he slowly squeezed the penis of the other man between his hands. It felt so sick, so awful to do that, and so unthinkable- his parents would die if they'd ever knew what he did – and yet he was still pushing further.

He was almost there. He knew he was almost there. He felt the tears of humiliation running to his eyes as he quietly cursed his stupidity and looked up as he slowly lowered his head down. No… Gods, no… And when he was about to lick it, the other man snorted with irony.

'Mr. Sabaku.' he said as he laid the hand on his head, pulling at his hair, clearly signing him to stop moving any further. Daichi slowly closed his eyes. Thanks gods. Thanks. 'You really are an impressive man. But you still can't measure up with any cocksucker I have met in the past.'

Daichi opened his eyes and frowning as he moved away. Something… something in this tone didn't sound about right-

'Let's fix it, shall we?' And before he knew it, he had his mouth full of his own boss' cock, gagging him with shape and the smell. It smelled of sweat and fishes- (no wonder, after whole day of working here without a single possibility to clean up) Holly gods, he was being mouth-raped – engaged in the gay sex he made up himself- He tried to close his jaws in the defending gesture as the strong hold prevented him from pushing away from the other man's thigh's but then a leg stamped over his own genitals and squeezed it so hard he saw red but not enough hard to trigger the automatic jaw clenching in him- 'Don't even think about it.'

And, like an idiot, he stopped thinking about it. To tell the truth, next five (ten?) minutes were nothing but a blur of emotions to him (oh gods, oh shit, I can't breathe, it hurts, my throat, I'm going to vomit, my jaws hurt, it tastes so- so- so- bad- …how he was going to eat salmon after that?) he didn't want to remember. He felt tears trickling down his cheeks – mostly because of automatic physical reaction to the unstopping pain, he was too shocked to cry – and his voice coming in deafened guawffs, protesting as his body jerked backwards, held in the steely grip. And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, suddenly his mouth were filled with the sea of warm, salty snot that just kept flowing and flowing and flowing-

He swallowed automatically part of it, not wanting to choke, but then it got to his nose and he did choke, coughing up the white substance all over the floor. And he saw, saw the smiling face of his boss for the whole time. His stomach clenched in protest, twisting into tight knot as the meaty member slid out of his mouth like a tire that quickly lost the air. He felt the sticky substance covering his chin, his neck – and most part of the front of his suit. All covered in his spit and alien come. Something bad had just happened. _Help._

'That's enough for me, Mr. Sabaku. Quite enough to say that maybe I was too quick with my opinion on you.'

Daichi looked up at the man with confused stare, too glazed over to do anything. The other man got up and zipped his pants like if he had just used the toilet and clapped his hands together.

'Maybe there's a little shark in that rabbit of yours. I mean… as long as it decides to keep secrets. It's not like if you can run anywhere to with that…' Daichi didn't move. The other man carelessly walked up to the door, accidentally kicking his briefcase in the process. He looked at it, mildly surprised, then tossed the glance toward the man once again with his oily sweetened smile. 'And please, do clean up here? You can't work in such a mess. I expect better from a worker who gets a rise in the end.'

The glassy doors clicked in silence. Nobody whistled in the halls.

Daichi looked at the ceiling with blind gaze. He wanted to vomit so much. But he couldn't - his stomach closed up so tightly that even if he drank up the water it would probably only go through his nostrils again. He couldn't.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato was feeling much better by the time he went to pick his son up, and as such when Asuma approached to ask him if he'd settled anything with Gaara's father he didn't take it as badly as he could have.

'I'm sorry.' he told the taller man, smiling apologetically. 'Sabaku-san is having some problems right now, but he is trying to do something to fix it. I'll try to talk to him again whenever I can, would that be all right?'

'All right, but we already went over this and if that's not going to change soon...'

'I know, I'm really sorry. I just don't want to pressure him too much and cause him to get upset.' he gave the other man something quite close to a pleading look. 'I promise I'll try again, just please, give me a little more time.' On a normal day he would have been upset about how they kept asking him to settle such a thing when he wasn't friends with the older man and the other quite openly disliked him, but as of right now he was more calmed just at the knowledge he was back in therapy and would be able to work through the things that happened weekly, so he just agreed.

The other man just passed him the kids then and waved them off with a tired wave, indicating that he didn't really believe him but that he was not putting much pressure on it either. it was his fiancée who was worried about it more after all. As there was no saying when the kid's dad would show up, Minato had asked Asuma to wait and had come back with the leftovers from yesterday and some quickly made ham and cheese sandwiches for the kids and an extra jacket to wrap Gaara in, considering his own wasn't exactly suited for the weather.

He had also meant to go back to his house for a couple more hours, but it felt a little bad to just leave the kids alone and the teacher watching over them, and he had work today too, so he couldn't leave Naruto as late as usual. Instead he asked the teacher if he'd like for him to look after the kids so he could spend some time in the teacher's lounge while he finished grading some papers for classes that night. It was upon seeing Gaara that the nice feeling of order he was just starting to enjoy started crumbling a bit.

The redhead's eyes had reached stat stage of redness where the cornea was so irritated it almost blended with the puffy skin around them and he was constantly sniffing back a trail of snot that insisted going down his nose. Naruto was quietly drawing next to the redhead, as close as possible without actually hovering, but he also wasn't talking to him other than to vague soft mentions about whatever he was doing or ask the other to pass him this crayon or that colored paste.

'Gaara?' leaning down, he reached to brush the soft hair off, stopping and turning around to give the teacher a questioning look and only resuming the stroking after the man nodded affirmatively. 'Are you feeling sick?'

'No.' said the redhead, not even stopping the drawing for once. He enjoyed the gestures, but it didn't matter that much, so he didn't react to them. He sniffed up the snot and kept on drawing the Long Road which was very, very long (and he needed five pieces of paper to make it from beginning to end). It was hard to draw a house but with Naruto's help he somehow managed.

'I see.' the blond said, continuing to stroke the redhead for a moment, then looking in his bag until he found a bag of paper handkerchiefs. 'Here, your nose is all runny and it'll ruin that pretty picture you are drawing if it falls on it.' he was about to give it to the kid, but seemed to think it better and simply crouched down so he could clean it himself.

'I brought food for you and Naru.' he said warmly. 'I remembered to put ketchup in your sandwiches this time.'

The redhead looked at him for a moment when he cleaned up his face and let out a heavy breathe as he was having troubles pushing the air through his nostrils for the whole morning. Then he nodded and got back to drawing again.

'Okay, let's put things aside one moment so you can have some lunch and then you can keep drawing, all right?'

Gaara seemed to not hear him as he kept on drawing with even more fierce movements. The blonde waited a moment, sharing a look with his soon.

'Gaara.' Naruto said, giving the redhead a small and carefully measured shako as to make sure not to affect his picture. 'Come on, I'm hungry.'

'Are you cold, Gaara? I also have a jacket for you if you want it.' Gaara stubbornly kept on drawing, looking like if he wanted to burn a hole in the place he was looking at. The sniffing could be heard again and it kept on getting quicker and more frequent. Minato waited another moment, hoping the little boy would stop but as that didn't seem likely, he gently reached for his hand. 'Come on, Gaara. I'm sure will be much prettier after you work on it with a full tummy, _okej_?'

Minato rubbed the hand lightly. Finally, the boy looked up at him, with his bottom lip quivering quite badly, but he left the drawing alone. The big hand of Minato was warm and welcoming so he caught it also and moved other hand to clean up the new glistening with his sleeve. And yet, he couldn't help feeling sad.

'Aw.' Getting another hankie, he offered it to the kid this time, and massed the bright red tresses. 'Let's clean up. No sense on getting the food to taste saltier than necessary, right?'

The redhead nodded, agreeing to that, but even if the sandwich was yummy and he didn't have anything for breakfast, he couldn't really eat it all. He kept on nibbling it and nibbling and it didn't get any smaller as the time went, so he finally gave it back to the older blond and got back to drawing. After some time even they left, though not left completely as the big warm jacket was left with him. It smelled of tea and Naruto, so it was a hushing feeling. And when he finally came to be one and only in the building again, the door had opened and daddy in his very own pullover entered in.

That was a distortion in the space. He felt the wound burning again and his first reaction was to run away, but when the jacket didn't move as fast as he wished, he ended up only tripping himself and loudly crying out from pain (and disappointment, and hurt, and loss, and loneliness and everything else)

'Mommy!...' But he didn't protest when the older man took him in his hands and cuddled him in his firm, strong grip, he didn't protest at all – he still felt unfair and he still disliked daddy, but he felt safe and he felt the affection of daddy and his warmth and he missed it, he missed feeling so safe and loved so much… 'Mommy!...' So even when he cried for the blond smile in his memory, he only kept on holding to the man tightly, not really noticing when they left the place. After that he didn't want to let him go and daddy held him in the car for a long, long while, in silence, and he saw that his brother and sister also saw and somehow, he felt that he was not the only one to be held like that before- and then they slowly drove home.

The snow was falling in heavy, puffy blotches and they've got only one stop on the side when daddy suddenly had ran out of the car to make strange noises at the side of the road, but then they've got to their home and another day had ended in tiresome, uneasy sleeping. All three of them. Because, for a change, this night Daichi was the one who couldn't sleep.

The next day started snowing quite heavily, and Minato pondered about how wise would it be to take Naruto to kinder, but the blond was already up and getting dressed all on his own and so he decided to enjoy the brief remaining years before he started high school and he had to fight to get him out of bed instead of keeping him there. When he went to take the blonde he was surprised to see Gaara was already there, his father's car disappearing down the street before he had a chance to catch him, but he was glad he was still bundled up in Naruto's jacket, so he told him to keep it for a couple more days.

It was after he woke up some six hours later and brushed his teeth with water that might as well have come from a glacier that the next day would be Saturday. Which meant that the Sabaku kids would be left alone for an indeterminate amount of time. He had immediately reached for his cell phone to send the man a message, but doubted at the last minute. What if he said no? He couldn't exactly go to their house and stay at the door waiting to burst in at the first sign of trouble like some sort of action hero. That, if nothing else would get him a nice night in jail and stalking charges, which he would rightly deserve by that moment.

He didn't want to face the redhead either, and he had work that night. There was no way he could- As if some invisible trap had sprung at the thought, the phone started ringing, and as he already had it in his hand it took him a moment to answer.

'Yes?'

'Uzumaki-san?' a kind of dull voice asked from the other side. 'It's Yamato.'

'Ah, Tenzou-sensei.' He didn't remember doing anything wrong, why was the man calling him? Had something happened at the university? 'Is something the matter?'

'The boss wanted to know if you finished correcting the midterms you were working on.'

'Ah...yes, yesterday. I gave it to the kids.'

'So, everyone is accounted for?' The blond thought the question was a bit weird, weather by how it was phrased or what it implied, he didn't know.

'I'd say so.'

'Good, because we need to cancel classes.' The other man told him in the same calm voice. 'There's a gas leak and they haven't been able to figure out where is it coming from, so we can't turn on the heaters or give classes in this circumstances.'

Minato actually pulled the phone away to stare at the device. Seriously. Seriously, what were the odds?

'So, we are going to try and contact as many of the kids as we can so we can save them the bother of coming, with it being Friday and so late, we don't think this will get fixed until at least Monday.'

'I see.' he said laconically, though he didn't really. 'So I don't have to go tonight?'

'No, but thanks for asking. We'll contact you through the week to let you know about anything else that might raise up.'

'Yes, thank you. Good luck with that.'

Minato hung up and stayed where he was, staring at the phone some more, then sitting heavily on the couch and taking a deep breath. If this was how Murphy's laws were supposed to work, he didn't like it one bit. Now he didn't have an excuse not to wait on Sabaku to talk to him in person. Biting his lip, he stated looking through the cell for Iruka's number to let him now he didn't need him that night. Now he just felt bad for not believing Obito when he said he came in late because he passed out on the way to the classroom.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Green light, red light, orange light, beep… and the same on the other side. Temari looked around, slightly petrified. Yes, she was scared. A bit. Not much. But still, it was much more than it was before. And she didn't like it at all. The morning began quite strangely – not much, but there was something off, she could tell. Daddy didn't look like if he was sleeping at all – and Kankuro later told her that even if he stayed by his side for the whole night, he looked the same the moment Kankuro closed his eyes and opened them. So there was high possibility he didn't go to sleep in the end.

Which was not good. Daddy worked. Daddy had to be strong. And as far as Temari knew, to be strong you also had to sleep. But when she asked him what was wrong (and she did it extra quietly, as she hugged him very, very close before he sat her into the car) he just looked at her with that strange stare that she could never really understand and had only muttered something about 'illusions' and 'haa-loo-cy-nations'. She didn't ask him more then, even if she really wanted to know what 'haa-loo-cy-nations' meant, but his glazed over stare seemed to just close him up in a faraway place where she couldn't reach him.

But what was actually worse, he didn't seem to come back from that place when he left her off at the school – she reminded him it was Friday – that Friday, where she had only one lesson because the school called it off during the preparations for some kind of a ball on Monday – but he only muttered something again and it weren't instructions about what to do later. So, after a long hour in the library where she looked over the colorful book about typhoons, she finally decided to get up and play outside. She spent another half an hour on trying to make a snowman, but it quickly became boring and she was once again left without nothing to do.

If only Kankuro was with her it wouldn't be so boring… sure, he was annoying and often came up with stupid ideas, but at least he listened to her and accompanied with everything. And it really wasn't so far away from his school… She let go of a little snowball she was making and stared off into the sky. It was full of swirling white feathers that melted against her cheeks. Of course. If she had nothing better to do, she could as well go visit Kankuro. Daddy would probably have nothing against it as he would pick up them both at the one place and have much less to drive through. But of course, she couldn't leave like that, right? It was possible he would check here first for her. So, after a bit of maneuvering she got out the notebook and scribbled on it where she was going.

'Dear daddy, my school ended up sooner. I told you, but you are still not here so I decided to go to Kankuro. See you, Temari.'

Yes, that would probably do. In lack of better place she left it stuck to the indicator near the advertisement of additional lessons of Spanish and the notice of two kitties being ready to be sold and then, she set off. But as it seemed to be a good idea at the beginning it stopped being so nice at some point. Mainly because before when she travelled by bus there was much better weather so she could easily see through windows that were constantly covered by the steam from breathing now and she really had no idea what kind of bus' stops she was going through. Covered with snow – every one of them looked the same.

Not to mention the big press she had to endure in the vehicle – maybe for an older person it wouldn't be anything like that, but she was only a little girl and people kept on tripping over her and pushing her rudely. After very uneasy ride through the three stops she finally asked some old man about the next stop and it came out that it was her stop. But as the bus stopped the press was so big there was no room to move through – and she could either move between the legs and jump out on the last second and leave her bag pack inside the machine – or not get out at all. The choice, how bad it seemed, it was easy to predict.

Feeling very disturbed by the bus that moved toward the unknown destination she slowly moved toward the door as the bus closed its door so she managed to get out two stops later. And then… everything looked alien and unrecognizable. She walked back two blocks but she still couldn't phantom if the street she had just passed was the one where bus turned or if it was the next one. And when she tried to ask people about the school of Red Sands, people just shook their heads.

'I'm sorry, I don't know.'

'Aka Suna? But it's so far away from here! Are you sure you're talking about it?'

'Fo'shizzle miss drizzle, I have no idea, yo… but I betcha I coulda take you to police station to see…' (from the last one she had run away before he had even noticed that she wasn't listening. He was strange and he started even talking about police and if anything, it would be really bad if she got involved with such men – daddy would probably be very mad) so, after another ten minutes of pointless walking she had finally stopped at the crossroads and sniffed long and hard. It really wasn't a good idea after all. Her legs hurt already and she was somewhere out in the middle of nowhere and when daddy wouldn't find her with Kankuro he would become very, very angry for her being so thoughtless…

if she could get turn back the time she would make sure she would stay in the most boring library and would read the most boring books for the whole day and she would obediently wait for daddy, if only… if only…

'I want to go home!...' and nobody reacted. So unlike in the school where everyone actually looked at her when she spoke up and unlike in home where, even if daddy was too busy, her brothers always tossed her a glance or two to make sure they understood what she talked about. And here, she felt so small, so unimportant, so… so…

…alone…

'Daddy!...' she cried as she crouched down near the wall, pushing her fists into her eyes. She wanted to get out of here, to be home, in her bed, with her daddy where he would caress her head as he would make sure she had her hair tucked up right or as he would kiss her goodnight every now and then 'Mommy!...' Mommy would know what to do… she always did. Why did she have to… have to…

'Temari?'

She rose her head immediately, almost like if her neck was made of springs. The quiet wailing died at her throat at the very second she did that. The person that looked at her through the thick curtain of tears looked like someone she knew, the same posture, the same blonde hair… 'Mo-'

She blinked away her tears. No. It wasn't mommy. It was uncle Yashamaru. Like if it couldn't get any worse.

'Temari-chan?' the man spoke in hushed tone, but to her it didn't sound assuring. Not at all. She jumped back agile like a little cat, her tears already forgotten, even if they still pearled on her thick blonde lashes. He seemed to have some strange bag from which piece of bread and leet stuck out – it were probably results of shopping. She remembered seeing a shop through the window of the bus. Maybe he was walking from there. But it still didn't make her situation any better.

'Temari-chan? What are you doing here?' spoke the man with a frown between his light brows. She didn't answer 'Where is your father and brothers?'

She still stayed silent. Danger. That was all she heard in her head. Nothing else got through there. The man moved. She jumped another step back.

'Tema-'

'Stay away from me!' she screamed, ready to spin around and run. The man slowly let the hand he rose fall back as he rose his eyebrows high. His concerned gaze didn't seem so interested anymore.

'I just thought you were lost as you and your family never visit that part of town.' he said and he propped his bags on his arm to catch it firmer 'But if not, then it was nice to meet you, sweetie.'

He turned around and started walking away as something sharp tugged at the girl's insides. Sweetie. That was an old forgotten little call-name for her that mommy gave her when she was very, very little and Gaara wasn't even there. She remembered it like through a heavy mist but as it was uttered again it seemed to be much more visible now than before. She whimpered. Stupid uncle was leaving her here and it was all right but she was left alone and she had nowhere else to go… he was a family and wouldn't let her stay in such place, right? He wouldn't… At least he shouldn't let her suffer like that. So… so… She moved hesitantly a few steps forward, then stopped. The figure of Yashamaru was already starting to mix up with other people on the street and fading away from her eyes.

'Uncle…' she said quietly, then louder 'Uncle Yashamaru!... Don't leave me here! Uncle!'

Then she had started to run toward him. He stopped and she caught up to him quickly, but she didn't dare to touch him and he didn't try to do it also.

'Uncle… uncle Yashamaru… please…' she started, and her uneasiness grew. The blond man looked at her with cold disinterested stare, like if she was lice on his shirt and not a part of his family. She hesitated, but then his stare melted into concerned look again and she had no problems with going on '…take me… take me back to daddy. Please!...'

'Why? What's happened?'

'I… I walked off and he doesn't know I'm here…'

'Really?'

She stopped. The shadow that went over the eyes of the older man seemed quite scary. She instinctively knew that she said something she shouldn't have.

'B-but he is searching for me!...' she added tentatively and then gripped her hands on her bag pack 'I'm sure he had called the police already!...'

'Is that so. Then maybe I should walk you to the police station.' said the man. She shook her head quickly in fear. That, strangely, made her uncle smile. That was a reason why she didn't like him. He was acting so strange. Too strange for her to understand. 'Then maybe you want to visit my place?' he asked brightly. She once again shook her head, this time much more sure of herself. That wasn't a good choice. She knew that once she would… this would be the end. She didn't want to. Her uncle however didn't seem to be put off by her response at all.

'That's all right, sweetie. Maybe other time then.' he said, like if it was obvious that one day she would. She didn't like it also as she was sure she wouldn't do that, at least not on her own will 'But listen, I can't walk you off to your home. It's too far away from here and I'm quite a busy man to travel like that. But the Three Hazelnuts is not really far away from here. How about that?'

Three Hazelnuts? It was a name where Gaara went to instead of a school, like all little babies did. That sounded safe. Maybe not awesome, but could do. Once daddy would arrive maybe she would be able to convince him that she decided to visit Gaara for a change instead of Kankuro…

'Come then.' said the man and started leading the way. She didn't touch him and he didn't try to do that also – only when they had to cross the road she had instinctively reached out her hand to grab his pants. Instead, she met the strong grip of the blond's hand and she had to endure it through the walk for a short instance. But when she let go of him on the other side of the road she couldn't help but notice that his hands were warm – her thin mittens weren't very good for longer escapades on such weather. After some time, that contained walking through the icy road and dangerous frozen puddles she had finally seen the front of a building she… maybe not knew, but definitely recognized. Oh gods, finally.

Finally she could let go of the fear that was gripping her for quite some time now. She declared to be ready to go on by herself then, but uncle insisted on walking her up to the door and then he even pushed the button of the ring that was too high for her too reach. She walked him up with a stare, not answering his wave of hand when he walked off. She was still not sure about him. Uncle Yashamaru was scary.

'Yes?' suddenly the door before her opened, revealing the bearded man who looked at first surprised, and then both surprised and puzzled. 'What… can I do for you?' She shifted in unease.

'I… came to visit Gaara.' she muttered shyly 'I'm his older sister.'

'You are? But…' the man looked around, like if he was looking for someone, but didn't find him '…are you alone?'

'Yes.' she answered truthfully. The man frowned. It was obvious he didn't believe her too much.

'How did you get here in such weather?' he asked. But before she could think about the proper answer, the happy squeal from the inside of a building sounded, and very soon the little redhead ran out to hug her.

'Temawi! Daddy!' he half-shouted, half-cried, like if something bad was happening to him. But when he saw that there was no daddy with her, instead of letting her go he clung to her like a sticky octopus. The older man looked at her in silence, then with a frown had finally welcomed her inside. That was good. The weather really was becoming quite unpleasant.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato hadn't managed to reach Iruka in the whole morning, which worried him, as it really was too cold for the young man to have to make the trip to his apartment if he wouldn't be needed. Not that he wouldn't pay him if he did, he just didn't want anyone on the street with the way it was snowing and how cold it was- the brunet was probably in classes and that was more than likely why he wasn't picking his phone, but even if he had left a message already he wouldn't feel safe about it until he got an actual answer.

As it was he had stopped his attempts to reach the young man long enough to wipe something up for Naruto and Gaara's lunch and gone deliver it, and was almost to the door when his phone rang. For a moment he feared it might be Sabaku, even though he hadn't spoken with him yet (which made no sense, but his sudden bouts of paranoia seldom tended to make much of it) but it was just the younger boy on regards of the message he'd left.

'Sorry about that, Minato-san, I was in class.'

'I'm the one to apologize, sorry to call you in the middle of one.' he said, nodding at the blond man that left carrying a little girl with short blonde hair adorably made up in a purple coat, listening to what the younger man was saying. 'Yeah, a leak of gas or something, they don't know when they'll fix it.'

He gave a distracted smile to a young boy with dark hair that stoically sustained his little brother's incessant chatter about some idiot usuratonkachi while trying to fit him into more adequate gear for the snow.

'I just wanted to let you know my classes have been cancelled so I can stay and take care of Naruto tonight, so there's no need for you to come tonight. Yeah, a leak of gas or something, they don't know when they'll fix it.' he stopped when he nearly tripped on his laces, rolled eyes at his own clumsiness and stopped long enough to fix the knot on his boots. 'I suppose for next week. They should have it for Thursday, right? It should be long enough…'

He noticed Asuma giving him a look, but supposed he was fully in the area of 'saved by the phone' and just gave him an apologetic look as if saying it wasn't his fault and just went in to give the kids the food. Upon which he found two blonds and one redhead, instead of the usual one-one ratio. A schoolmate?

'I don't know, I think one of my students…' Iruka answered something, but he wasn't listening anymore, because he had only met one girl who wore her hair in four ponytails so far, and only one with such pretty bluish green eyes that was now looking back at him, and as far a she knew, Sabaku had told him he had taken the maps he had given the kids and either way… '…I'm sorry, Iruka-kun,… something came up. I'll call you through the week to let you know about Thursday, would that be all right?' he hoped the answer was yes, because he still wasn't listening and he just ended up closing the cell and staring.

'Hi daddy!" his son chirped happily from his spot, prompting him to give an automatic greeting to the three, then lapsing into a moment of silence.

'Temari-chan…?' he turned around to give the teacher a quizzical look 'What are you doing here?' …either way, the maps he'd given them were for the line of buses two blocks from here. He doubted she had the address to the kinder written down, and finding them couldn'0t have been easy, so… How had she gotten there?

'I came to visit Gaara.' answered the girl as truthfully as she could, though it wasn't very true to begin with. She came here because it was the only place offered to her she could go to. Even so, her face took the challenging stare, almost like if she was daring him to disagree, and then she had frowned and caught Gaara into a hug, like if that could validate the point she was stating. But if anything, it looked more like if her younger brother was more of a shield than anything else. Now Asuma was the one ignoring him, so Minato turned back to her.

'Your school is really far away, how did you get here?'

'How far, I wonder.' muttered the teacher behind him under his nose, almost like if he was talking to himself. The girl sank slightly in herself, but she still looked at the blonde with careful stare.

'I walked.' she said curtly and stopped, staring at the floor. Then she looked up, checking if he bought it, and when she saw he didn't, she sank a little bit more 'And by bus.'

Minato gave the teacher a similar look.

'And where did you get down from the bus, Temari-chan?'

Temari blushed visibly as she started looking at her feet in rather big interest. One would think some new civilization started living there. It seemed to be so interesting that even Gaara joined her in observations, though, after not seeing what she saw, his face became confused quickly.

'I don't know.' she said quietly, though by the shift of her eyes it was obvious she was not telling the truth 'But it wrote Iron Sands Street on the corner of the building.'

'Really?' Minato was giving him a little frown of worry. 'That'd be terrible Temari-chan, writing on walls is vandalism, ladies shouldn't do that kind of things, it's against the law.'

'I didn't write it!' shouted the girl, immediately looking up at the blond with shining eyes. But then, as if she saw through her own outburst, she let her head fall down toward the floor again. 'I was… uh… that was Raccoon's bus stop.'

'Temari-chan…' crouching down so she was at her height, he put a hand on a thin shoulder, giving her a reassuring squeeze. 'Please tell me what really happened? I promise I won't get mad. I'm glad you got here safely, but there are no buses that would leave you here from your school, and if someone brought you here, we need to know. It's dangerous for you to be with strangers on the street, sweetie.' Even if he could understand her wanting to run, what with staying how long on that school of hers… 'Please?'

The girl had only slightly rose her eyes at him, watching as she played with the brim of her shirt between her palms. The silence stretched with the ticking of the clock and light sounds of other kids playing in the background. Asuma patiently counted the dots on the floor. He lived through many of such. He knew that sooner or later, the kid would stop lying, as long as it knew there was no harsh landing waiting for it.

'…le.' sounded very quietly out of sudden, then the girl looked at her own palms, and then once again into Minato's eyes. It was hard to resist this trust in stare of his 'Uncle Yashamaru. He was walking down the street with his bread and he helped me to get here.'

Asuma looked at the girl, puzzled.

'What? I didn't see anyone with her.' Then he sighed, biting at his not lit cigarette 'Besides, Sabaku doesn't have any uncles. The girl is lying again.'

Minato stared for a moment, then his eyes widened slightly and he paled one he realized who the girl was talking about. No wonder, so far he had only heard him being refer as 'the in-law', 'that bastard' and the ever creepy 'mommy'.

'You…' he gave the teacher a look, then another to the kids. 'It's all right Temari. Stay here a moment, will you?' moving to where the teacher was, he quickly asked him if he'd already called the girl's father.

'To be quite sure, I tried twice, but he was not picking up the phone.'

'I'm calling him now, then.' he had meant to talk to the man in private when he came over to get the kids, but this was important. Temari was perfectly fine and she had been brought safely to her brother's school, with no sort of damage done, but if it had been him, and Kaho had just so much as parked her Fancy Mercedes across the street… He felt his stomach knotting on itself just from thinking about it. 'I'll try now. Can you please take care of the kids for one moment?'

At the man's affirmative he quickly went outside, reaching for his cigarette and litting one immediately as he went through the limited list of his cell and found Sabaku's number. He just hoped he would pick up. After long moment of signaling, finally the phone had crunched in the oldest known sign – the receiver was picked up.

'Hello?' asked some voice of not very young woman, who didn't even sound educated enough to accent the words properly 'Who's speakin'?'

'Tell him it's Sound Company.' muttered something in the background, along with some strange noise coming from the floor.

'Sound Company. How can I help you?'

'I have to take a break.'

'Yeah, the head of those controllers-ow, I meant comptrollers… he said he will be back later. Can I take your message?'

The door creaked in the background. The silence filled with a not very subtle gumming followed. Minato slowly took a very deep drag from his cigarette and slowly laid his forehead against the cold stone of the building walls, keeping it for several moments before blowing it out. He didn't want to be rude. He didn't even want to think rude thoughts. That's why it took him that moment to compose himself and pray - actually pray- the woman wasn't the down to an R stereotypical secretary who had gotten her position out of either sleeping with her superiors, or simply been contracted out of a secret hope the sigh of her underbuttoned shirt would keep people longer in the waiting hall than inside the office of some boss. Or both.

'Yes, good afternoon, miss. My Name is Uzumaki Minato, I'm looking for Sabaku no Daichi, if you please? I need to talk to him on regards of a matter with his kids. It's important.'

'Whaaat?' asked the phone in a manner that would make the worst beginning secretary feel ashamed 'I already said that Mr. head of the store decided to travel around the world and will be back later. To tell personally, I think it's because he drank too much the last night, but that doesn't change anything, so, cupcakes, leave the message and I'm hanging off.'

'I understand, miss, I'm sure you are very busy.' painting your fucking nails you fucking bitch I'm sure it takes all of your painfully scavenged IQ to fill it evenly- No, no, bad thoughts. I'm sure everything has an explanation. Like a fatal blow to the head. A napkin fell on it when she was three, such blunt trauma! 'But I don't need to talk to the head of the store, I need to talk with one of the employees. His name is Sabaku no Daichi. If you don't know where he is, would you please pass me to another secretary with more time? I wouldn't normally waste your time like this, but it's a family emergency.'

'Another secretary? Ha, that's unheard of!' sounded the voice on the other side, followed with a hearty, a bit witchy laughter 'Honey, if you want a secretary, call the main office, all hotlines to this office are officially busy now. And Mr. Head of this store, Sabaku no Daichi is officially just as busy as I'm not, so don't get your hopes up too high.'

'I see.' The blond said calmly. Last time he'd talked with Sabaku he said he was an accountant. He was sure he would remember if he'd been in another office. If he'd been in a good position like head of any department was. He looked around, but saw no femaleish short-haired blondes trying to do away with little blondes or redheads or brunettes. Or fancy platinum gray –never just gray- Mercedes, for the matter. All was right with the world.

'It's all right, miss, I understand.' he chuckled amiably 'Why, last time his kids disappeared on him, he told me would cut me open with a fire axe, when it wasn't even my fault. I'm just glad this time I'll be able to direct him in your direction when he can't find them and tries to murder me. You are his only secretary, right? I'm sure you will be hard to confuse.'

'Honey, I'm not even working for him and your threats don't scare me.' said the woman firmly as something had clicked in the background 'I was paid to sit near the phone during my break when I don't have to clean all that stuff in this building because that ol' man surely sits more outside this office than in it and that doesn't make him look good. So end of the world or not, I'm left to not disturb him- oh, welcome back, prince charming.'

'Who is it this time?'

'This time? It's still the same person, cupcakes.'

'Oh, for the love of g- Beeeeep. 'I'm sorry. The number you're trying to reach is currently unviable. Please, try again later.'

Oh well, he tried. He hadn't meant to threaten, either. When Sabaku came to try and point fingers at him (as he doubtlessly would) he fully planned on letting all the blame of it to fall on the gum-totting bitch who had been tending to the phone. Instead he rummaged some more through his cell until he found the man's cell phone number and as now he had lost any courage he had to try and make a call, he decided to just text him. When people didn't want to talk, they didn't pick up phones anyway. Text messages were easier to answer or ignore if one didn't feel like it. So he typed, feeling as he dipped into a sea of absurdness at the cheery sound of the beeps the letters did as they formed on the screen. _Your in-law brought Temari to Gaara's school. Then he sat down on a half frozen bench, crushed the cigarette and fished a new one. Then waited for all hell to break loose_.

Ten minutes later, his cell broke into the litany of perpetouus sounds. He made a face at the glaring name on the screen when he opened the device, and now he regretted not having taken that third cigarette. It wouldn't make the call any better, but it would give him something to do instead of just suffering through it.

'I tried to call you.' he said as soon a she pressed the button to initiate the call. He was glad that the tone of his voice when he spoke was closer to a sort of a resigned tiredness than any sort of pleading. 'Whoever was tending to the phone told me you were busy and wouldn't take calls, even when I told her it was an emergency. But I did try to call you, I swear.'

'I…' said the man on the other side, then silenced for a long moment. So… it wasn't a joke. Not a joke of bad taste which he wanted to throw back into the blond man's face for having a) bad timing b) bad choice of words. He felt the acid burning at the back of his throat as his hand slowly closed into a fist, then relaxed, like if his palm took the functioning of his lungs. 'I'm sorry about that. I was not expecting that… well, it's not every day that she is... I mean…'

Then something that clogged his way of thinking suddenly moved out of the way and his head got flooded by a waterfall of emotions. For the love of GODS!

'How the hell did she end up in such situation? What was he doing there?' he screamed to the receiver hysterically. The sole idea of what's happened – no, what could have happened left him breathless 'Doesn't she know that she isn't supposed to talk to him? I thought she knew better than her brothers! I'll kill him!…' Then his voice suddenly broke and hanged up in the air, like if he had suddenly lost the ground from under his feet. In a moment his voice sounded again, sounding like if it was really flowing from far away.

'I… is she all right? What did he do to her? I swear I'll make him eat his own fingers, each for every scratch, I swear…'

The blond let him rant, more out of not daring to say a word until he was sure the older man was done than actual politeness. As it was, a direct question was harder to sit through silently.

'She's all right, Sabaku-san. From what she said he brought her here and left quick enough Asuma-san didn't see him.' Which was so creepy. At so many levels. Why would anyone –a responsible adult, at that- just drop off a little girl like a good Samaritan and then just vanish like some sort of urban legend? It's not like if he knew he'd told Asuma to make sure no one with his physical description approached. Because he had told the man on his own, not even to Sabaku, so he couldn't know. Which meant that he did bring the girl and just disappeared like nothing without so much as waiting to explain how the girl had gotten there when he knew perfectly well she would tell her father- No, scratch that, he knew why he was doing that.

_I can see you, Sabaku_, the eerie voice of paranoia would chant. _I can see you but you can't see me and I can be anywhere just as easily as nowhere at all, and if I can get one kid this easy, I might as well supersize it and get all three of them, why not?_ The more he learnt about the supposed in-law the less he liked him.

'Listen, it's getting cold and I don't have classes tonight. Do you want me to take her and Gaara to my house? They can wait for you there. I'll make dinner.'

For another moment nothing, but the sound of something squeaking ran through the receiver – the sounds that was so annoying as squealing toys for kids. Only this one was much quicker, which meant that probably the chair on which the other man was sitting was either not oiled enough or was oiled perfectly, and the nerves of the man were actually trying to carve it into two halves.

He did nothing. He did nothing to his only little girl who was supposed to be the most smart and who was supposed to know to stay away from him. This was ridiculous. But how much ridiculous it was for him to walk up to her school, grab her and walk her through whole way from her school to Gaara's kindergarten he simply couldn't laugh. He could almost hear the sound of the collar clashing around his neck and suffocating him. How many more until he wouldn't be able to breathe? He fought the best he could but to tell the truth he had no idea what he was doing and how much it worked. He had very unclear vision about who Yashamaru was and what he could do – so it was like a fight of a caveman with a civilized human.

'Yes.' he blurted out almost mechanically 'Yes, please. Take them. Please.' Maybe if he wouldn't have to worry about their future for the time being he would calm down and would see through what fate gave him. But so far he could only see his little girl, Temari, walking on the streets hand in hand with him… that man…

And he wanted to hit her as hard as he wanted to punch him. Because in the end, it started to outgrow him. As long as kids listened to him he at least had some superiority on the grounds but what would happen if the kids would actually stop listening to him and would not run back to him at the first good occasion to get away from the man's grasp? He didn't know how he would react to that kind of opposition. Nor he did know how to fight the beginnings of it.

'I'll be there as quick as I can.'

Minato breathed a sigh of relief at that. At least he could keep the kids somewhere heated and safe. For once he could actually work a hot meal on them, he wasn't sure when they'd last had one of those.

'All right then, just hang on a moment- I'll pass you to Asuma-san.' he stopped just shy of the door, giving the bright (and obviously significantly warmer) insides of the building a look. 'I didn't tell him anything about your in-law so… Well, If you want to, it's up to you.'

Daichi had only closed his lips into a short white line. To tell Asuma? No. That would instantly start a spin of questions why they said uncle couldn't take care of the kids when he obviously had time. It was hard to explain why such a lovely man could provide danger to his harmless children.

'Thank you.' he answered only. 'I'll tell him about the kids.' And when he heard the voice of bearded man reaching him he started repeating the old boring formula of letting the kids go with the blond because he had to work late and so on. Not that he hadn't. But the note didn't look over his cause very carefully. And after ten minutes of Asuma playing the Sherlock Holmes, he finally announced out loud: the kids could go. Thanks gods.

Minato waited patiently, wanting to just start moving from one foot to another but being old enough to know only kids had the liability to do that without looking utterly ridiculous. When the man finally turned around to return him the cell phone, he all but snatched it up and went to fetch the kids, informing them with a small smile he'd spoken to their father and they would be staying in his house until later that night when he'd come to pick them up.

'So I need to cook lunch for you guys and decide what to make for dinner, any suggestions?'

'Ramen?' the little blonde piped up immediately, earning a resigned sigh from his dad.

The Sabaku duo looked at him in silence for a moment. Then the redhead looked up, looking to be lost in thought and put the little slimy end of the sleeve of the sweater he was wearing in his mouth.

'Tomato soup.' he said slowly 'With cream.' He remembered seeing it in the newspaper the other day. Not that he hadn't ever got any, but daddy was always so busy he said he didn't have time to stand near the gas and make any soups. Of course, his sandwiches were yummy, but nothing tasted as good as liquid hot dinner. The blonde's eyes shined at the idea. A bowl of soup was what she missed for the whole day and she had only realized it when it was spoken out loud. There were probably other hidden needs like those, but since it was the only one mentioned there were no worries about them yet.

'With rice. A lot of tiny, thick white seeds…' she started. But the boy had only leaned on her, closing her speech. She reacted almost instinctively, as every time any of her brothers stood close. She closed her arms around him lightly. Gaara returned the gesture with a light hold on her shirt.

'No. With noodles.' he muttered, then he bit on his thumb 'Long, white noodles, like in spugeti…'

'Aw, no.' she piped in 'At least let it be stars.'

'Stars?'

'Yes. Noodles that look like little stars taken from the sky.' Gaara didn't comment on that. He didn't remember eating such nor seeing those, but he never looked too much into the shelves where noodles laid. Most likely because he rarely was in the shop, and when he was, all that got his interest were either toys or real animals living in tiny zoo shop. He looked with surprise at Minato, like if he was expecting the man to both disagree and say that such noodles not only existed, but also were made in the land of magic and tasted like sweets. The blond frowned at that as he ushered Naruto into packing whatever was left so they could get home and maybe some last minute shopping before the snow started falling any harder.

'I thought Kankuro didn't like tomato?' He knew Kankuro had said something about tomato, but if he had said he liked it or disliked it, he couldn't remember. Also, hasn't he already given the kids tomato soup before? He couldn't remember if Kankuro had been there that day, God, why did he have such poor memory? 'I'm not sure I have the star noodles, is it okay if it's just the ones with letters? Naru, do we have any left of those?'

The little blond paused on turning in circles to try and get his other arm in the missing jacket sleeve, thinking for a moment.

'Didn't you get new ones last time you went to the big market?'

Had he? When he was setting the groceries he'd been on the phone with Genma on long distance and trying to grasp why ¾ of what he'd written regarding bridge building was wrong, so all he remembered was passing Naruto bags while the little blonde scurried around placing them where they were supposed to be. Or at least where he supposed they were supposed to be.

'So, tomato soup with alphabet noodles, is that okay? We could have that for lunch…' he automatically reached for Gaara's sleeve, pulling it away from his mouth. 'Then, for dinner…'

'Ramen?' Minato sighed again.

'Maybe some pasta?'

'With beef?'

'With… tofu?'

Naruto winced.

'With meat.'

'There's no meat at home. Tofu?' More wincing.

'Meeeat…'

'Soy sprouts?' Now the little blond just looked agonic as he stumbled forward and clung to his coat.

'Daddyyyy…' What was he going to do with this little carnivore?

'Chicken?' Naruto looked up sharply. 'Real chicken?'

'Yes, Naruto. Freshly murdered poultry, I assure you.' Naruto had no idea what 'plurty' meant, but as long as it had came from an animal that bled upon death and tasted like it, he would be contented. Temari and Gaara (this time with another sleeve put in his mouth as the other one was put away – it was a smart trick to not suck on his thumb and so far daddy was not complaining about it; probably because he didn't notice, but what was new) had only looked at him in silence. No, Kankuro didn't like tomatoes. And no, they were not telling him that. Their middle sibling will just have to suck it up. They doubted if the boy would be very fickle about it. And if he would then they'll worry about it. Or maybe Naruto's dad will.

'I want mine to have the letters for pineapple to be in it.' said the blonde finally, agreeing that way for the soup. She was already seeing it – floury noodles floating on the red liquid and her, eating it up… it felt almost like victory over the stupid pineapple-like boy. She really liked the idea 'Please?'

'I want 'mom'.' added quickly the redhead, not wanting to be worse than his sister 'Chicken tastes good.'

'Okay, then we'll be having soup now and chicken at night.' he turned to the teacher, smiling a little apologetically. 'I'm sorry for all this inconveniences; I'll be taking the kids now. Temari, get your jacket.'

Gaara was still wearing the one he'd left with him earlier that week, so pushing the new sleeve off his mouth, he helped him put it on and get his backpack on place. Asuma had only shrugged lightly.

'I'd be surprised if the troubles wouldn't come sooner or later.' he muttered as he watched the girl wearing her jacket 'This family is full of such land mines . Take care of them, they need someone who isn't touched by this weird fate.' And with that he went out of the room to look up another kid trying to get his attention from quite some time now. Gaara looked up at Minnie, not trying to ruin the jacket this time, but twisting the brim of the sleeves between his fingers anyway.

'Yeah. Take care of us.' he replied like if Asuma had only enlightened him some deep truth. As much as the older man was joking, the kid was making it up with his lack of the tiniest bits of humor in his eyes.

'I think it's daddy who needs guidance more than us.' added Temari, also looking at the man with thoughtful stare. So far neither of them had lost the children's sincerity yet, so everything was much more plain to them. Soon they were ready to set off. Minato frowned at the teacher, thinking that whatever his thoughts on the matter might be he had no right to vent them on him or in front of the man's kids, but before he could make up on his mind on whether he should tell him what he thought – which he wouldn't have dared to do ether way- the kids spoke up. trapped, he thought as he looked down at them,. A small, sad smile playing on his lips as he leaned down and ruffled the soft hair of the redhead and the slightly coarser one of the girl bear traps with green eyes.

'I wish I could, love.' he said quietly. 'But really… I'm the worst person to give advice to anyone.'

He would have gotten up after that if a small weight hadn't clung at his back the neck moment.

'Naru?'

'You are good, daddy. You are the best daddy in the world!' For s moment no one said anything- and worse yet, Naruto felt he'd said something awful because his father just stared at him as if he'd said something really bad, and worse yet, looked like if he might start crying right there and then, but then he just smiled a bit more and pulled him close, kissing his forehead.

'You are too good for me, _Lisku_.' the older blond said in a weird, sort of husky voice, before getting up and ruffling his forehead so bad he had to let go of him to straighten his bangs off his eyes. 'Let's go home now. I bet you are all hungry and we still need to get a couple things before it starts snowing harder.'

Naruto stared up at his father, still unsure about what he could have said wrong – because really, who would love him or be nicer to him than his daddy?- but Minato was picking up everyone's bag and taking him and Gaara by the hand, so he decided to ask later. Maybe Gaara's dad had been mean to him while on the phone and he hadn't said anything bad at all. Yeah, that must have been it. Gaara's dad was a meanie like that, he'd have to talk to him tonight and tell him to stop telling bad things to his daddy, orels.

Sure, he didn't know what 'orels' meant, but it sure sounded scary whenever Iruka told him that kind of thing, probably one of those words he wasn't to know what they meant until he was older. He was sure Gaara's dad would be able to fill in the blanks, him being so much older and all. Yeah, he'd tell him tonight, and then he'd be nice and daddy wouldn't be sad or nervous anymore. Orels.


	19. 19: Lullaby

Suck. Suck. Suck. The freaking kid was sucking on a lollipop. Nonstop. It was a big, long lollipop made of sugar colored in pink with a little hole somewhere in the middle so it could act as a blow whistle until it was eaten up too much. But the kid didn't care much about that. It just kept licking.

'…and then the confirmatory obligations will have to come out as we will push at the third party so they would press at the second one…' talked one of his co-workers only a meter away, but in his head it sounded like if his voice was coming to him from another shore of the big canyon. He barely took any notice about the topic that was spared. Something about campaign, but he didn't care.

Suck, suck, suck. He closed his eyes and drank up a bit of the coffee he bought himself on seventeenth short break this day. Or was it seventieth? He didn't know, he wasn't sure. He only knew that the stuff was supposed to be bitter, hot and tongue scalding. So far it had only managed to traumatize the nerves on his tongue. But even if he had poured the sugar in, it wouldn't change a thing.

Suck, suck, suck. He opened his eyes. The coffee had a dirty brown color with white dots of cream in it. Damn Yura and his brats being taken to work. He could do that. He could do everything since he was not on the black list of that-

'Urgh-' he muttered, catching his mouth. His interlocutor stopped, seeming to be a little unsure about what was happening. He slowly swallowed the acid in his mouth back to where it belonged. Coffee. He had stomach full of coffee.

Suck, suck, suck…

'Mr. Sabaku?... You don't look too well-'

'I'msorry.' he muttered in one breath and ran away to the bathroom. So far he managed to get away from the reflex of vomiting, but he couldn't run away forever. His short trip had ended in the sink as the toilet was too far away – but as his worried discussing partner followed him, he had quickly locked himself in one of the cabins. He didn't want to be bothered by anyone today.

'Mr. Sabaku? Is everything okay?' asked the man on the other side of the door 'You don't look too good, maybe you should go home earlier…' 'I'm fine.' He answered. (lie)

'That's just the stomach sickness.' (second lie) 'I'll come out in a minute.' (and another one) So he sat. Slowly, his hands rose and sneaked around his face, hiding I them. He was on the very end of his sanity, gaping freely at the other side of the mirror. The thin paper-like glass with sign 'nervous break' already stared back at him and begged him to just punch at it and be overwhelmed by anything it provided. His daughter was taken away from her lesson's and taken by Yashamaru to Gaara's kindergarten. Gods only knew how he did that and what did they do before they got there. Knowing Yashamaru, it could be anything. Anything.

'Leave us alone.' he all but wailed in hopeless self-pity to no one but four walls of his cabin. His co-worker waited on the other side, and started knocking to his door again so he couldn't think anymore. He didn't want to think anymore. For example, about the money.

This morning, when he came back to his office, he saw two things on his desk (he came out of the cabin, looking like if he had just used it, though he didn't flush the toilet. His co-worker didn't seem to be confused though). The first one was a big wad of dollars knitted by rubber gum that counted one hundredth of dollars in one dollared banknotes. They smelled of food, paid bills and clothes for kids (he came back to the sink and started washing his hands as his co-worker resumed the talk about him 'scaring him quite a lot' and 'considering him to take free days') and of course, of uncalled homosexual sex he didn't want to remember.

The note about cleaning his office with Clorox had only strengthened the feeling as their cleaning lady bargained in a moment later, ready to scrub off every dry drop of semen he didn't care to look at – and he didn't care about any of them (he stopped the water running and dried his hands in automatic hair dryer as he looked at the mirror. Mouth of the other man kept on moving, but all he heard was gibberish. His own face looked older for five years since yesterday and it seemed that Temari's revelation had only added a wrinkle near his eyebrows. He didn't see it before). Then he spent the rest of his time walking around, unable to do any work. The feeling of smelly meat in his mouth just wouldn't come off.

As well as thoughts about how many times he would have to hit the little girl to make her understand that going anywhere with Yashamaru was the worst thing she could have done.

'…and then we will open the champagne and-'

'Isago.' he said, cutting the man's talk quickly. The other man looked at him, confused 'Do I look gay to you?' The other one kept looking at him, dumbfounded, then he started smiling a bit awkwardly.

'No… of course not… why do you…' he started, but he didn't let him.

'And a bad father. Do you think I could be a bad father?' he added. The other man blinked, even more confused.

'I can't really tell, I have never met your kids or anything.' he said. Daichi turned back to the mirror. His eyes darkened a bit by the stoutness that bled in 'Where does this come from?'

'Just curious.' he muttered then hid his hands in his pockets 'I guess I should go back home, it's nine already.' Isago had only nodded in silence. He rarely stayed for so long, so he didn't know when the Sabaku ended his work but nine sounded like a good hour to get back to his own projects. Daichi had watched him going in silence and then he came back to his office for his own briefcase and came out of the building.

He was not gay because his own boss raped him in the face. He could live with it as a normal man. He knew he could. He had to. Not thinking about what's happened was key to everything. He was not a bad father and all he did was right. If he made wrong choices he couldn't admit to them anyway – he was his own guidance and without his certainty there was not much left to hold onto. When he stopped on the lights, the money burned his tight through his suit and they didn't stop when he picked up Kankuro. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter at all.

When he stopped before the door of the Uzumakis he glanced at his son for the first time after picking him up and bit his lip in uneasiness. Kankuro was staring at him like if he had got a second mouth on the centre on his forehead and was singing happy-beer-songs in foreign language by it.

'All right there?' he asked the first thing that came to his mind. Kankuro hadn't even moved an inch, even when the bell to the door rang. 'You act weird.' he only stated. Daichi frowned.

'Be quiet.' he added, a bit annoyed. The kid had only frowned back but didn't speak up 'And don't make such face!'

'I'm not doing anything.' he muttered under his nose 'It's you who-'

'Kankuro!' he hissed through his teeth, obviously more aggressive than it was needed for, he himself had no idea why. But the kid's observation angered him, angered him so much – what if he was not the only one who noticed? If a kid noticed, everyone else would be able to see through him too. It made him feel even more panicked and it angered him at the same time. If only the kid wasn't looking at him like that!... Kankuro had only shrugged. Obviously, he was not picking up the fight. He glared at him and pushed the bell button again. At least he was obedient at some point.

It took a few more moments for the door to open, and then Minato was opening the door for them, a little apologetic smile on his lips as he let the pair pass.

'Hello Kankuro, Sabaku-san.' Minato's mood has improved since getting home, without having had time to think a lot on what had just happened because three kids were a bit too much to let him do more than one thing at the time, so pondering about the matter had been left for quieter time. Like when Temari had announced she needed to do her homework.

It was only when she'd sat down and Gaara and Naruto had disappeared into the latter's room to do whatever it was that made that much noise doing that he came over to try to ask what had really happened and how had she ended accepting a ride or whatever with the older man. As it turned out it wasn't his initial thought the blond had… well, abducted her, but that Temari had been able to leave her school without anyone noticing was worrying, especially because he'd been considering inscribing Naruto there in another couple years. Maybe he'd have to find somewhere with better security…

'Please come in.'

'Hi.' said Kankuro in a bleak tone as he stepped in, watching more the floor than where he was going. The other man followed with a short bleached 'good evening' that seemed to be uttered without a spare of thought. And even as his moves were calm, his eyes had immediately shot around the room, almost like if he had expected someone with a gun to jump out at him at any moment now. Soon enough the quick steps were heard and the little redhead had sprung from the hall with a squeal full of longing. Like many, many times before.

'Daddy!' half cried, half pleaded Gaara, already reaching out for the man in his run, as if he hadn't seen him for ages. Daichi looked at him for a moment, but quickly lost his interest, making the kid cry in protest as he stopped in front of the man, stepping from feet to feet with impatience. But such behavior didn't seem to leave the slightest impression on him.

'Where is my daughter?' he muttered quietly, like if he was genuinely surprised that she didn't show up yet. So far, Temari didn't go out from her room to meet him in the face 'I'd like to speak with her.'

In the other room, Naruto shot an uneasy look at the older girl.

'…aren't you going to say hi?' he had to go too, he hadn't forgotten what he'd talked about the whole Orels matter, he was just… After things had settled down. Maybe after dinner, but definitely after Temari-chan had gone out to do whatever she was hiding from. The girl had only shot a nervous stare from her notebook at the blond, then quickly got back to it, like if it had much more interesting informations than just simple math.

'N-no.' she said quickly in a bit higher tone than usual 'I have h-homework to do. Maybe later.' she rarely stuttered, but now it got a lot harder to keep her tongue straight. If anyone asked, it was probably something in the tea she was given, or maybe in the colors of the walls. Because it was not like if she was scared or anything, she was sure about it.

Minato gave a look that clearly conveyed how uncomfortable the way the older man was acting made him. It was a déjà vu from just a few weeks ago, when he'd made Gaara cry that horrible way and mistreated everyone- he passed a hand lightly over Gaara's hair to get him to calm down slightly, his anxiousness getting to him.

'She's doing her homework in the room.' even though she'd been sitting in the kitchen's table just a moment ago. 'Sabaku-san…' He had no idea what he would say now, only that he needed to say something because he didn't like the way the man looked and he didn't want to have anything like that time happen again. 'There's something I'd like to talk to you about, after you check on her?'

'Of course. This won't take long.' answered the man with the same unconscious tone as he observed the door behind which the girl sat. And even before he had ended the sentence, his feet had already taken him there, moving soundly over the floor. She was not alone. Uzumaki's kid was also with her. But even when he opened the door as slowly as he could to make it creek soundly, the girl didn't turn her head toward him, like if the notebook she was scribbling into had also closed her in the soundproof room.

She was scared. He saw that. And because she didn't have anywhere to run to, she decided to pretend she was busy. How typical in the adult world she didn't belong to yet. He came closer, not trying to hide his footsteps as he stopped behind her, close enough for her to feel his presence. A moment had passed, then the second one. The girl kept scribbling in the notebook, even if he saw that her hand was actually shaking so much that it probably couldn't write anything with sense.

He came closer, not trying to hide his footsteps as he stopped behind her, close enough for her to feel his presence. A moment had passed, then the second one. The girl kept scribbling in the notebook, even if he saw that her hand was actually shaking so much that it probably couldn't write anything with sense. After another moment of ignorance, he bended over her and took the notebook from her hands. She had stopped the moving as stilled like if he had clicked the pause on the TV remote. This didn't lessen the awkwardness – it didn't go away with passing time even as he hid the object under one of his arms closed in a cross. He glanced over it at that – the text was written with sense after all, but the letters were so giddy it was hard to distinguish one from another. It was her writing – the girl who had the best calligraphy in her class.

'Look at me.' he said finally. That made the blonde curl in itself and still. That was not a reaction he desired to make. He closed his eyes and frowned. If anything, it was making him more and more pissed off. 'I said: look at me, Temari.' he breathed in a tone he thought was calm, though even to his ears it sounded a little too tense, too fake 'Don't make me repeat myself.'

For a moment – nothing. And then, the chair creaked, and she had finally did what he had asked her for. The highest time. A moment of another overstretching silence. She didn't dare to speak up and he didn't say anything for the lack of the good beginning. Instead, they just kept looking over each other, the man with sour gaze and the girl with eyes full of guilty. And her cheeks were pale, so pale that even her dark pupils seemed to change color under the evening's bulb's light. His frown deepened.

'Well?' he said finally. It seemed to sound too sharp, too edgy. The girl shook a bit as if to prove the theory, but didn't tear her gaze away from him. She was either too scared or too courageous. Or maybe both. Boys in the corners didn't even do much more as to breathe. That was good because he was sure that if anything or anyone had interrupted them, he'd send it to hell. Right here, right now. The girl was not responding. The silence was becoming painful. But finally, the little lips had opened.

'I'm sorry, daddy.' Fell between them like an abandoned white flag. It meant nothing. He knew his kids for too long to fall for that. She didn't understand the weight if her guilty and the amount of nerves it had caused him. She had to understand what she did wrong or else it would all happen again. And again. And again.

'You made me so disappointed.' he hissed through his teeth. The girl looked at him with wide eyes 'What were you thinking doing something like that?'

'Sorry.' muttered the girl again and curled on the sitting again. He cringed inwardly. 'I…'

'Something could have happened to you. Didn't you think about that?' he droned, feeling as emotions started to overcome him. What would happen then? How would he live with it? He couldn't even imagine what would he do if she'd just vanish and… and… not be there. That was something unthinkable. Temari was the least to do something like that. 'I thought I had a smart daughter!'

'I'm sorry!' said the girl, this time, raising her voice a few tones, as well as her eyes 'But I told you that I was ending the lessons earlier but you didn't listen to what I said again-!'

The speech was stopped abruptly as he rose hand threateningly at her, indicating a possible slap. The girl's eyes had almost fell out of her head as she had never seen him doing that before. But he couldn't bear to dance around the topic that made him at fault here. Not now.

'I never told you to walk away alone from school and with your uncle nonetheless!' he barked, and the girl had looked at the floor in guilty 'Out of you three you're the only one who seemed to understand what kind of danger he poses and what did you do? Huh? Huh?'

'Sorry!...'

'Don't you remember what he said back at your mother's funeral? Why were you so careless, Temari?'

'I was lost, I just didn't know what to do-' chirped the girl, but he heard enough. The speech was starting to keep up the pace and she didn't seem to be able to follow.

'You wouldn't be lost if you didn't wander off on your own!' he growled. The girl curled even more, obviously touched by the words. What else could be done here? He was right. She shouldn't have done that. 'Everything's better than being around him! Didn't you think about what he could do to you? Are you really that mindless?'

'I'm sorry!...'

'Sorry wouldn't help you if he'd kidnap you!'

'Sorry!...'

'Have you ever thought about how would we feel if something bad had happened to you? How would your brothers feel? How would I feel? Haven't you ever?' The response was only a quiet crying. But even that was too much for Daichi. 'And why the hell are you crying?' he boomed 'You were the one who caused all of us troubles, you careless kid! Your mother would be so disappointed if she could ever see what have you done!' A soft gasp could be heard in the side of the room. Kankuro had obviously stopped breathing, looking like if he could turn blue anytime and wouldn't even notice that. The little redhead kept staring at Temari like a little animal who was exposed to loud music. He breathed quicker too.

For a moment the silence in the room returned, clawed only by the quick, sharp sobbing of the girl. She kept looking at her feet with stubbornness, but apart that, nothing much was left from her bold behavior. The older man kept staring at her with unclear mask over his face, his strength steaming like a stove on the cold air. A few moments and all the anger was gone just as quick as from the deflated balloon.

'I don't know what would I do if he'd take you.' he muttered finally in much calmer, murky tone 'I think my heart would burst from missing you.' The girl had only shook her head in the protest. The man had finally closed the distance and closed her in a hug. Quiet sobs had immediately changed into hysteric cry as the girl hid her head under the flap of his suit.

'I'm sorry, daddy- I didn't want to-' she choked out in a intermittent tone 'I didn't know- I'll never do it again-'

'I know.'

'He wanted to take me home-' Choke 'But I refused- I didn't let him touch me- Daddyyy-'

'I know. I'm proud of you, Temari.' was muttered in the response as the man hugged her even tighter 'You just have to understand… you scared me. You have scared me a lot.'

'I'm sorry-'

'Me too.' Only then the man had rose his eyes at the blond, like if he had only just noticed him and got surprised that he did. But it was only a glimpse as he had just turned around and stopped looking at anyone whatsoever. His conscience was too tired to even nag at him for what he did.

Naruto wordlessly had slipped to his father's side, clinging to his pant's leg and half hiding behind it and thinking that maybe this just wasn't too good a day to explain to him that he needed to be nice to his daddy. Gaara's dad seemed to be really angry right now, and he had said he'd eat him, even though Naruto hadn't really done anything to Gaara… Actually, thinking about it, the man should eat himself. He was mean to everyone he knew, including his kids. It's not like if Temari-chan had really done anything that bad, she had gotten lost and followed some person she knew, was it better if she'd just stayed in the street, lost? His daddy would never act like that, if he'd done the same as the older girl, his daddy would…

His daddy… He risked a look up. It was obvious even to someone as young as the little blond (or maybe especially because he was the one to notice) that Minato was very uncomfortable with the whole situation, but there was something odd and for some reason sad in the way he looked at the pair. The tenseness was almost gone from him, and that, more than anything told Naruto he could relax to, but if he'd done the same that Temari and gotten lost…

He'd never gotten lost. Not even once (daddy was always around), but once, when he'd been very, very little, back in the other house, and he'd been very mad at daddy for something really silly like how 'Biki was always around talking to him about serious stuff and Minato no longer had time to play with him… So he'd gone to his room, taken his pillow from the pillowcase and put the things he wanted inside. He had gotten as far as Kyuu-chan and his sleeping cap when Ero-sennin had come to his room and asked him what he was doing.

He had explained the white-haired man and gotten even more railed up when the other man started to laugh at him, telling him something about how someone crazy like his father would pick up a wild animal of a son like he was, and then he'd yelled that it was better because he didn't want a daddy that was never around to do anything and that when he did anything he did it wrong and that he'd go away and find a better daddy and… And his daddy had been at the door. Minato, oblivious to what his son was thinking patted him lightly on the head and after another look at the pair apparently decided that it was better to give them a little time together.

'Come on kids, I need help with dinner.' he said calmly as he ushered the boys back outside the room, turning when he didn't find the little blond among the small group 'Naru?'

Naruto didn't move, his hand picking little balls out of his pullover and dropping them on the floor, eyes firmly glued to the blue socks he was wearing. If he'd left like Temari, his daddy would have probably…

'_Lisku_?' Wordlessly Minato lifted his hands in an open request to be picked up, snuggling tightly into the older man's warmth and trying not to think about dinner. Suddenly his tummy hurt a bit. And they weren't much of a help apparently. As much as they would be some other time… at the very moment, the both kids just seemed to be too freaked out to even consider being a help. Gaara probably tried, but all he did was more mess and Kankuro followed, obviously not minding their behavior in the end.

'He is mad at us.' was whispered suddenly by the redhead. It was made to be hidden away from the ears of others, but Gaara, as any other kid his age, still had problems with lowering his tone as much as he should. 'He'll punish us.'

'No, he won't.' answered Kankuro in much more hushed tone. He tried to sound confident, but it didn't come out very much as one 'We didn't do anything wrong.'

'But he was screaming at sister.' was the panicked answer.

'Yeah, it was because…' said Kankuro and stopped. What could he say there? He couldn't really get what was wrong. His brain seemed to have clicked off at some point and he just kept staring at his father as he said something in the loud tone. In silence he turned his cookie dough into the more messy mixture.

'He is mad at us!...' was said again by the redhead, this time in much more wailing tone. Kankuro looked over him, nervous, but not saying anything. What could he say there? He couldn't find one rational word to say it's not likewise. More, he felt pretty scared himself.

'Don't cry.' he said only, and poked his brother lightly. 'You hear me? Don't be a crybaby, don't cry.' But the redhead was once again sniffing, too disturbed to act quiet. Kankuro, in loss, decided to take care of his dough much more than it needed him to. He was not good at it when anyone was around and could see. Being caring was so unmanly after all.

Minato gave the pair a worried look as he stirred the pasta in the pan. He hadn't known what to do to keep them entertained, so he'd just randomly suggested for them to try to make cookie dough, even though he himself was notoriously bad at any sort of desert that hadn't come from a box with the words 'instant' printed somewhere on its front. He would have suggested for them to rip the spinach in bits so he would be able to add it to the food, but… he actually needed it for the dish, so it just seemed like a better idea to handle that himself. And besides, dough was one of the best things he could come up to entertain a kid. Kids were too scared to be entertained, though.

'Gaara…' turning down the heat on the pan so the food wouldn't burn, he wiped his hands on a rag and kneeled to the boy's height, stroking the soft hair lightly. 'He's not mad at you, okay? He was just really worried.'

The redhead gave him a dubious look as he sniffed once again, quite loudly. His cookie dough was long forgotten as he smeared his face with his sweater once again.

'But he was screaming at sister.' he muttered in a voice that sounded like if he was pleading 'He is mad at us… I don't wanna… I want mommy…'

'I know, Gaara.' the blond said gently, pulling the boy's arm away. 'Most people scream a bit when they are scared.'

'You don't,' blurted the little blond as he flattened his piece of dough against the table, making his father wince.

'Screaming hurts my throat, Naru.' he said firmly after a second's hesitance. He had no idea what else he could have answered to that. There was no answer from the little boy, so either it had satisfied him or he hadn't believed him. At any rate, he wasn't starting a discussion, and he was grateful for that.

'At any rate, your dad isn't screaming now. He's just talking with Temari-chan about some important things-' at least there was no raised voices coming from the room. The man hadn't hit his daughter, either, even if he'd almost… Minato himself had been railed up by that. He didn't want to imagine what it was like for a kids Gaara and Kankuro's age. 'You didn't do anything for him to be mad at you. Neither of you did.' He added, giving the older brunet a look, then focusing again on Gaara. 'So don't worry for that, okay? Besides, if Temari-chan comes from a scolding and sees you two looking like that, she'll think you are mad at her too. You don't want that, right?'

In the answer the redhead had only rose his hands in silent expectation of being lifted and hugged. On the other hand the other boy kept on making a mash from his dough, like if it killed his dog (he wanted to have dog anyway… did he mention that?). He did his best to show that he understood but it didn't affect him. To be serious it affected him quite much, so he couldn't get away from the gloomy atmosphere, but at least he tried. He shrugged.

Minato blinked at the answer, feeling something that was equal parts contentment and guilt at the fact something a sweet little thing like Gaara would trust him enough to not just want for him to pick him up but expect of him to do so, regardless of whatever his father might have told him of him. Smiling a little, he picked the redhead up, giving him a light squeeze before adjusting him on his hip so he could go back to stirring the food.

'Here, I need you to tell me if the chicken is spicy enough, please?' he offered the redhead a small, steaming piece of chicken in a fork. 'I don't like meat, so I need help with it.'

'I wanna try too!' Naruto nearly fell from his chair in his haste to get off from it, his dough completely forgotten (as well as his stomach ache) at the idea of tasting the chicken. As if feeling that his position was endangered, the redhead quickly leaned into the hug and got a hold on the man's neck like if he was the last dry piece of land after the biblical flood. Not that he didn't like Naruto and not that his hug was anything super awesome (okay, it was very nice, but in his childish and nothing was better than daddy's strong hug. The only thing that felt better was the hug of mommy's but that was, of course, indisputable.), but he wanted to have a place where he could feel sure that everything was okay and if Naruto would want to go up there, there was no way that Naruto's dad could hold up the spoon and he'd have to put Gaara down for sure. It was a little too soon.

'It tastes awful.' he said as he quickly snatched the piece of food from the spoon and made a face like if it really did when it actually tasted pretty good 'I hate it.'

'Really?' The older blond looked surprised as he looked at the contents of the pan with a frown, reaching for the can of pepper flakes and looking into it. Maybe it had expired? How odd, those things lasted months, if not years, and he could swear he had bought it just a few weeks back.

'That's odd…' he had no idea what else he could make for six people, short of ordering some pizza-and just the thought of the grease left over in the carton made him sick to his stomach. Maybe he could do one himself? But he didn't have flour left, he'd given the last bits to the kids to make dough with, and even if he hadn't it wouldn't have been enough to make even one. 'Oh, what am I going to do now…'

Naruto stared up in horror, blue eyes wide as if someone had told him he his only remaining relative had perished in a gruesome fire.

'You ruined the meat?' the blond all but wailed, his father not answering as he tried to think back to what he could have done to ruin the food- he was pretty sure he had measured the spices correctly and hadn't overcooked or missed anything… 'Daddy how could you? You never let me eat meat, you did it on purpose!'

Maybe he'd exaggerated on the lemon juice?

'Now I'll never have chicken again! Never. Not until next week!'

'I'll make you before next week, Naru.' The blond replied halfheartedly, looking at the recipe. How did one person exaggerate on a tablespoon? It was a tablespoon. They didn't come in that many varied sizes. Maybe it was the garlic…? 'No! Tomorrow the week ends and you don't have any more meat- and I don't want Tofu!' he added immediately, making Minato's mouth close. What was so bad about Tofu?

The blond seemed to be pretty adept at mind reading, because he immediately answered.

'It tastes like rubber!'

'No it doesn't!' he adjusted the redhead on his hip, the small body plastered to him starting to strain a bit his neck muscles.

'It so does!' harrumphing theatrically, the blond stuck his nose up in the ear. 'I'm eating the chicken.'

'Naru…'

'I don't care how it tastes! It smells good so I'll just…' There was a pause as the blond tried to figure out a course of action. 'So I'll take a really good breath and taste that instead of what I'm eating!' Yes, that sounded like a good solution.

Nobody added anything, as Kankuro kept on playing with his dough like a man of steel he was (unlike his stomach, sadly. But at least it was growling very quietly). Gaara also kept quiet as he chew on the meat that vanished pretty quickly in his tummy and with eyes like five glinting cents he reached out for the spoon that seemed to be in his reach at some point and licked it clean. The older blond gave his son a troubled look. Naruto held it, his eyes only diverting at catching the redhead movement and pointing at him.

'Like Gaara!' If the redhead could swallow how bad it tasted, then it had to be at least eatable, right?

The older blond gave the redhead a look, looking rather surprised as his first thought was that Gaara might be hungry, but as he had taken him home for lunch and given him some snacks a few hours ago, he couldn't be desperate enough to eat something ill tasting, right?

'Gaara-kun?'

The redhead had only looked back at him with the look like if it was the most natural thing to do – say something tasted bad and then lick it until it was gone and diverted his attention to the spoon as he moved it into his mouth. Just to be sure it was clean of everything. Looking at the dirtied cheeks of his brother, Kankuro finally gave in. After all he was only a little bit older from his brother. Leaving the dead dough alone, he came closer and tugged on the other side of the blond's pants looking up expectedly.

'If he likes it, can we have dinner already? It's starting to get cold.' No food would get cold while the fire was still on under the stove, but his range of excuses to eat the dinner was rather poor and with their father it usually worked. Minato frowned even more, showing how confused he felt.

'Do you want to test taste it?' he asked, wondering if maybe there was some sort of secret game he wasn't getting and not really feeling like trying the meat himself.

'But daddy, I asked first!'

Kankuro looked at him with a rather pained expression that was his silent scream of frustration toward the whole situation. Adults! Why did they have to make everything so complicated? If he was on his place it would be obvious for him that dinner had to be set on the table and set right now, and instead of doing that the blond was just standing there and asking him if he wanted to taste it. Of course he wanted to taste it. More, he wanted to eat it. But maybe if he had agreed it would make things quicker. He nodded without really changing his odd expression.

Minato gave a look at the spoon, decided it was better left where it was (removing it from the little redhead and washing it before fishing a new chicken piece seemed too troublesome) and just dug a fork from the drawer, picking another small piece of meat.

Kankuro ate it quickly, his face finally changing from pained to delighted and quickly also to embarrassed as his stomach sounded out his delight in the growl of a hungry beast.

'It's awfully good.' he muttered, barely stopping himself from grabbing the fork and mimicking Gaara 'Can we eat already?'

Usually he didn't whine. But now he just couldn't stop himself. Minato seemed at loss of what to do, one kid telling him it was edible, another telling him it was awful and a third complaining about lack of taste turn. It was the latter who finally barreled into him, making him nearly lose his balance. Not that it had been that hard of a shove. Minato just was a person who sadly lacked much of a sense of equilibrium.

'Naru!' The blond pouted at him.

Rolling his eyes, Minato simply retrieved the fork from Kankuro's hand, fished a new piece of meat and gave it to the little blond. His ecstatic reaction was enough to make him turn to the pan and turn the fire off.

'Go wash your hands, will you?' carefully, he deposited the little redhead on the floor so he could go with them. 'I'll tell your father, just go to the table.'

Gaara wasn't very happy that he was being put down on earth already (daddy had always held onto him for a long time once he did, it was almost like if he forgot to put him down. But he was sure that it was only daddy's ability, because he did that also with Kankuro and Temari and his phone and his Important Papers. He remembered that once daddy had even walked around all the time with the stove telling them many things and had only put it down after he told them everything. So he wasn't very unsatisfied with Naruto's dad), but it was Naruto's pointing that made him uncomfortable. He frowned at him, but as Kankuro grabbed his hand (always when Temari was gone and there was no daddy around Kankuro started mimicking them both. Which was pretty rare, because daddy rarely left him alone with Kankuro only) and tugged him to go with him. He followed, still watching the blond from his shoulder, until he entered the bathroom. The difference of the room caught his attention immediately.

Minato ushered the little blond after the pair, as Naruto seemed intent on staying and having another test trial, but after reminding him the amount of chicken was limited and that they still had to get to the table before it cooled, he begrudgingly followed his friend. He busied himself a few more moments on the kitchen by cleaning around and placing the food in a dish to take to the table he moved to the room, knocking lightly on the side of the door before peeking in.

'Food's ready.' he said, giving the pair in the room a look. The man had gave him a distracted look, only to get his attention back to the girl. The little blonde seemed to be uninterested and tired, hanging hugged to his chest only because if she wouldn't she would probably fall on the ground. The redhead squeezed her a bit tighter and loosened his hold.

'You heard that, Temari? Food's ready.' The girl didn't oppose. She gave him a look and nodded as she jumped off his knees and walked by the Minato, giving him only a short look. If anything, her face showed only a deep guilty. The man looked older at least by five years. 'We're coming.' he muttered quietly and passed the man also. Without giving him a second look.

Minato wanted to stop him and ask him if he was all right, but to tell the truth the idea was ridiculous. His daughter had been taken by a man that could as well have literally done so and disappeared into nothingness; of course the man wasn't okay. If it had happened to him, he'd probably be on the phone either with the police or the airport while he swallowed little blue pills. He decided to let him be. Luckily this time Naruto's attempt at conversation were more enthusiastically received, even if it had to happen in between forkfuls of the food. Minato ate from his own plate, passing a small piece of meat to his soon every now and then, and after everyone was done, he ushered the kids to the room to watch a movie while he finished clearing the table and setting the coffee machine to work.

He tried to think of something to say, other than the obvious 'she's all right, stop worrying' because he knew by experience the curse of being a parent meant that you no longer could brush what-could-have-happened as easily as you did when you were in charge of just yourself.

'Tomorrow is Saturday.' he said instead, trying to find a better angle to start a conversation. 'Are you still working a full shift on them?'

The other man had only shot him a dull glance and went back to stare at the wall.

'I do.' he said in a blank tone. Personally, he knew he had to thank the man and he knew that there were so many things he should have done… but he didn't have courage to bring that up. He already was in so much debt with this man that it was embarrassing to even think about it. How did this came to this? The realization dawned on him later.

What if this time Yashamaru wouldn't be so much subtle and would just take his kids when he wouldn't be looking? He slowly curled his fingers around the edge of the table. The words grew in his mouth.

'Can I… could I possibly….' he started, then closed his mouth. It was hard to speak such things out loud. 'Can the kids… s-stay here by any chance?...'

The younger man turned to stare at him, surprised by the question. He quickly smiled.

'I was just about to ask you if you'd like for me to do that.' Not that he couldn't tell how hard it had been for the man to ask such a thing. He just hoped he realized he'd meant that. 'They are good kids. Please don't doubt on asking me anytime you need help on anything.'

'No, no, of course not.' said the redhead, staring at his own feet like if they were the most interesting thing on the world. Then, almost unconsciously, he started biting on his nails. His kids were good? He wasn't used to hearing such things and he didn't know how to take such compliments, so he did what he did best – he ignored them with silence.

'I mean it. It's no problem at all.' Only it was a lot of a problem, a lot of stress this man had brought onto his life when the last thing Minato needed were more reasons to worry about life… but by now, there was no way he could just walk out of this situation with a clear conscience, or be able to sleep at night without wondering where the kids were or what their weird uncle might do to them.

He retrieved a cup of coffee from the machine, depositing it in front of the man with another smile.

'You have my number. If you need anything, just let me know.'

'Yes. Of course. Thank you.' said the man, shooting him a quick glance, then getting back to his steaming cup of coffee. After all the stress it came off rather slowly and even if he still felt a little too nervous it was nothing compared to the ideas ha had got in the car as he drove there. He quickly drank up a sip. Not harsh, rather smooth and burning as hell coffee.

'You must have it though with them.' he muttered around the cup 'They're just kids after all.'

Minato waited until he got himself a cup and sat in front of the older man, adding the bit of milk he liked to sweeten it and the spoonful of sugar.

'Not really.' the blond said, stirring the coffee as he smiled more at the beverage than the man in front of him. 'I… was pretty scared. I never had to handle more than Naru alone.'

The other man didn't say much more about it, shooting a meaningless grunt of approval between his teeth and a cup. It seemed that for a conversation he was not very good companion. What he was supposed to talk about with him anyway? He barely knew him. Considering his situation it was almost grotesque that he let a stranger keep an eye on his kids. He searched through his memory to find anything useable and finally swallowed the liquid down his throat. It still burned.

'Anyone would be. I remember when we…' he stopped, then quieted down. No. He didn't want to talk about Karura right now. He cleared his throat. 'Kids can be quite lively. As a writer they probably interrupted your work but seeing how you manage they didn't do much of it…' Now that was also not a very smart conversation starter. He bit through his lips. 'You did quite well for someone who never had to take care of anyone else.' 'e said finally.

'I'm not writing anymore, just correcting things.' A faint line of worry showed on the blond's forehead as he said that last bit of information. True, he had finished the first draft of the second book, but it had been so long since he'd published he felt horribly nervous about what he'd written. It's not that it was bad, in fact he really liked several parts of it, he just… also felt some of it wasn't good at all. The ending, especially. It wasn't interesting enough.

He needed a good hook to tie in the next book (which he didn't even want to start thinking about) and after the action packed in the last chapters it just seemed like nothing could be interesting anymore. Just thinking about it (about his editor hating it, about the contract getting cancelled, about how he'd afford just about anything unless he turned this book before April, finished and ready) made him want to crawl in the pantry and stay there a couple weeks. Just until the anxiety passed, really.

'…exams mostly. I just turned in the midterms from my class last week and I already need to start planning finals.'

The redhead had only looked at the wall in front of him with a careless gaze.

'I'm sure that for a man who writes it's not a problem.' he muttered. He glanced over, noticed that nothing in the view had changed and looked in front of him again. The liquid tasted bitter, completely different from- Oh please, not now. Also this was something he didn't want to think about. But like a broken tune once triggered it seemed to never go away. He grimaced around the cup and swallowed more potion of coffee. It didn't help. He still felt salty (snots) in his mouth. He glanced over again. The man sat quietly on his stool. Good. He wouldn't let anybody do that again. Even if they looked like a fairy teens, like Mr. Uzumaki.

'University must be though.' he added finally. That was the best he could come up with at the moment.

'It's fun.' the blond said with another of those rare, nice smiles he so rarely seemed to use with anyone above the age of seven. It was like a less foxy version of the one his son seemed to have almost permanently plastered on his own. 'But maybe that's because I'm teaching instead of studying in it this time.'

Mostly it was the fact he had a stable job he actually like and felt he was good at. The payment was frankly terrible, so it was a good thing his income came from somewhere else, but after the first weeks of feeling guilt eating him alive, he was ready to admit it was sort of nice to have something else to do with his time besides obsessing over his son and obsessing over his work. The redhead had stopped at this point, frowning lightly at the smile that was shown upon him. He had never seen anyone smile like this, the kid excluded. But kids did a lot of facial expressions he didn't even think they could make and he thought it was more of a trait of some facial sickness for the little blonde to be able to smile so widely. It was surprising but not bad. Definitely not bad. He sighed into a cup and slowly turned his head away. He remembered his own studies.

'Professors also don't have it light.' he muttered, but he already knew that from appearance the blond was already five points forward to whole mass of students. He was young, he was witty and he had nice smile – what not to like on the first impression? And second and third and fourth? He was sure that he also was admired by girls in much more intense ways than he should've been. 'But I'm sure the money are worth it.'

'Not really, not at all.' Minato said, smile widening a bit more before it disappeared over the brim of his cup. 'I'm still in tenure. The payment is terrible.' It was a good thing he didn't have to live on that sort of salary.

For one moment the blond looked confused as to what the other man could be talking about, but then he quickly realized what the other man meant and he blushed a little, for some reason feeling embarrassed.

'Not from the college.' hell, he could barely afford the internet connection with what he got from it. 'We managed with what I do for books. Besides, the department isn't ours, it's belong to my uncle, so half of the things her are his.'

He felt a bit annoyed at the way the man had said such a thing, as if it were his fault they lived in a nice house, and maybe that's why he felt the need to irk him, just a little. Leaving the small spoon on the sink, he closed his eyes calmly, taking a sip of the coffee.

'My uncle does make a lot of money, though. He is a very famous writer.'

'I see. Congratulations then.' Daichi murmured as he practically drowned his nose in the cup. His mood dropped. It seemed everything went down to one thing – you were either lucky and on top or had lucky family and stayed on top with it or you were not and bit the dust. It seemed that it was true for bad luck to walk in groups. It was not a fair way of thinking, but such plain way f luck felt like another personal slap from the fate. Everyone had it easier on him. Without noticing, Daichi started pitying himself. He wanted to have it easy too, for once.

Because it wasn't fair that he had ended here. He worked his ass off to have the best for his kids. And what came out of it? Nothing. In the future his kids will only point at the blonde as the source of everything good and will treat him as the root of all evil. What kind of father it made him? He really didn't deserve anything that happened. Maybe he shouldn't have had jumped out of the window when he still had chance of turning back. This whole escape had no point in the end. Karura was dead, his kids were hungry, he had no money, just perfect. Maybe it could be better if he stayed home and just did what he was told to. Karura would probably still be alive by then.

And he wouldn't have to get through such adventures as free blowjob for a boss who didn't pay him the worst payment or listen to blaming wails of every one of his kids. He was stupid thinking everything was going to work out. Nothing was being okay. Minato had a rich famous uncle, and he was a poor man a step from becoming a beggar.

'What kind of books does he write?' he muttered grimacing around the cup with such bitterness like if the sole idea of Minato's uncle writing anything tasted of lemons. 'For teenagers?'

For a moment the blond, who had gone back to staring at the older man and waiting for him to ask doubted whether to go on or not. The man looked like if he was having rather bleak inner conversations, and maybe this wasn't the best moment to add some humor on the situation. On the other hand… He really was curious. His uncle liked to boast that there wasn't a single person over the age of twenty who didn't know about his anthology.

'…maybe you've heard of him?' he asked casually 'His penname is 'Gama Sennin.'

'Huh.' said the man around the cup, watching the wall in front of him 'Who? I've never heard of him.'

'Really?' the blond sounded almost disappointed. 'That's odd, he's been rather popular for the past ten years.' he sighed. 'Guess you mustn't have read _Icha Icha_ then.'

Gama Sennin? He thought he heard it somewhere, but he couldn't put a finger on it. It was quite normal – he went through too much once again. His memory was shattered.

'Yes. Yes, of course.' he muttered, looking at the window. Somehow he felt it would be stupid to admit he didn't hear of him 'Pretty mysterious name. So it's your uncle, huh?'

The lack of reaction told him the man had no idea who Jiraiya was. The blond was almost disappointed about it, not that he had told that many people about it, but the few who had had showed their knowledge in the most hilarious of manners. At least now he could finally boast to know maybe the one male in the universe who hadn't read an _Icha Icha_ volume.

'Yes.' the blond adjusted his grip on the coffee cup, warming his hands against the ceramic. 'He might come visit when he's done with his, um… research.'

The last he'd heard from him, he was somewhere in Water country, Rio de Janeiro, on one of the most exclusive topless beaches. Thinking about topless-ness made him think of the nice doctor who had tended to Gaara, and that made him think sensei's reaction to such a woman topless… He couldn't help smiling at the mental image.

'It seems he is also pretty busy.' said Daichi, darting his eyes at him for a moment, then back to the window. It seemed that the man believed him after all. So he could make a believable lie after all. He sipped from his cup and closed his mouth. His eyes moved slowly over the walls and paintings, but he quickly stopped himself. He didn't want to look like a thief, and he had scarcely little idea of what to talk about. He spent so little time with the nanny of his children it was scary. And talking about himself… no, it was too rude. Not to mention that he really didn't want to talk about it.

'So…' he started and stopped, jumbling his fingers against the cup '…nice carpet.' he ended pitifully. His loneliness also sucked him out of his wit. Completely.

'He likes traveling.' the blond said, the smile still in place. He had also liked to travel, back when Kushina had been with him. They had gone through most of Fire country, half starving and having fun from one end of it to the other. A little adorable boy had complicated their carefree moving, however. At the man's words he stopped in favor of giving him a look. It took one bad conversationalist to recognize the pained attempts of another at starting a chat. It's not that he was bad at it that surprised him, but that he was attempting to at all. From all previous meetings, it seemed like the man didn't really want to socialize with him at all.

He also looked to be rather depressed, now that he was taking a closer look, but downright asking what was wrong was too much intrusion from his part, and he'd never dare to.

'Thank you, it's new.' he fidgeted a little, trying to figure out what to say next. '…sensei's died a measly death after Naruto dropped markers on it and the ink spread. I hope he won't notice.'

'Oh, I know what you mean.' said the man, smiling a little 'We also have a carpet that had been stained with this awfully perfumed cherry vodka, so after a few attempts of our maids we had to buy new so now I have... had…' he stopped, staring at his hands like if he had just shot someone with a cup of coffee. The complete lack of lashing out at his finances and his kids at this point had made him forget himself for once. It was terrifying how easily and how far he had moved.

'It seems like if it was used for awhile.' he said finally with a bit higher voice than usual 'Wasn't it long since you have seen each other?...'

'Not since I moved.' Minato replied, not mentioning anything about how odd what he said sounded. For a moment he had thought the man said was just sarcasm and he had started to panic, but how uncomfortable he sounded afterwards dissuaded. Maids? 'He helped with the moving and stayed for a few days to make sure I was all right, but he left almost immediately after. His muse likes to take him around.'

'There's nothing like a life of an artist to live.' added the man, this time starring at the ground 'Music, women and wine. The paradise.' This time it really would be almost sarcastic if it wasn't for the fact it was a bit sad. He remembered saying such words in much different times. But it was long time ago. 'Why didn't you follow him? I'm sure your kid would learn something about the world like that.'

The blond adjusted his grip on the cup, now cradling it on his hand rather than holding it by the handle.

'I don't think it's that glamorous.' he answered after a moment. 'Now without someone to share it.' He had. He had dreamed of all the things he would give Kushina and they had made so many plans, they had waited for so long… he was just glad he had managed to give her at least a bit of that before it had been too late for her.

'Besides, going around doesn't take much money, anyone could do it… but I can't leave Naruto alone. And he needs some stability on his life. It's bad enough that I had to take him from his home over my problems.' One couldn't afford to just drop everything and go with the flow when you had a baby that had just recently turned 4 and needed your attention. The man looked over the cup at him, but this time the witty response didn't came. He was getting old.

'I guess you're right.' he said finally and drank up the rest of the coffee from his cup, leaving it on the table 'Traveling is only for airheads.' After that he stood up and looked at the window for a moment.

'We should get going.' he said finally 'Thank you for the coffee.'

The man's answer made him smile and think of lovely, airhead of a wife for another moment, before nodding.

'It's no problem at all. If you want, you can come a little earlier and have another with the kids when you come leave them.'

'Yes.' said the man a little absent mindedly 'I should come earlier.' Too bad it sounded too impossible to even try it out. Shoving his gaze onto the floor, the man moved out of the room to grab his kids. As it came, the only protesting one was the redhead. The middle child was already sleeping and Temari seemed to agree to everything that he said.

'Why are we going home so early?' muttered the youngest one as he dressed it up 'I want to stay…' 'Not now.' He muttered a bit absent mindedly 'Stop the annoyance, we have to go home. It's late.'

'But daddy!'

'Gaara.'

'But daddy! Can't Naruto come with us?' Daichi stopped and looked at his youngest with horror.

Not that they weren't there already, but the sole idea of getting them a ride there and inviting them inside in the full daylight had gave him the chills.

'Don't ever say this again!' he hissed through his teeth, clamping his fingers over the kids arm. Gaara squealed in pain in a moment 'Now button up and go.' There were no other protests.

'Bye…' muttered drowsily Kankuro from Daichi's arms when they unlocked the doors. The girl had only tossed a glance. And then they were gone.

Minato was thankfully spared the spectacle, because even if the man hadn't done much damage to the redhead at all, the sight of it would undoubtedly have disturbed him. Naruto did see, but didn't see what could have caused the pained noise Gaara emitted, so he just thought the redhead had stepped on something, maybe.

'That's all right, I'll see you tomorrow!' he told his friend, smiling enthusiastically as he waved at the tired quartet. As soon as his father was free of locking the door, he looked up at him rising his arms in an obvious request to be lifted up. Minato was only too happy to comply, picking the little boy up and squeezing him gently as the little blond wrapped his arms around his neck and stroked his back in that not-quite-gentle way little kids had.

'Were you scared, daddy?'

'Hmm?'

''Bout Temari-chan getting taken by that girly man.' The blond was a little taken back about how sensible about him his son was, and the wave of guilt that crashed on him at such a realization was indescribable. It shouldn't be like that. At all. 'I'm okay, _Lisku_, don't worry about me.'

Naruto stayed in silence for a moment before pulling back, taking some distance and giving his father a disturbingly serious look, as if he wanted to make sure he was telling the truth.

'…is he Gaara's mom?'

'No, Naru… I think he is his uncle.'

'Gaara thinks he's his mom.' Minato nodded, not really surprised about it.

'I think it's because he looks very much like his mother did, Naru. He is her twin brother.'

'Whatsa twin?' the blond asked, not giving any sign of wanting to be put down despite the fact he didn't usually like being held for long periods of time.

'It's when you have a brother or sister that's born at the same time than you. Those kind of siblings usually look very alike.' The blond nodded, adopting that sort of pensive look that usually were as good as warning bells to let him know the onslaught of interminable questions were about to commence. He was saved when the phone on top of the refrigerator started ringing. He was surprised because it was a little too late for anyone in Fire country to be calling, and quite too early for Sensei to be up. The name that appeared on the caller ID made him smile absently, even if it also made him feel rather guilty.

'Hello, Ibiki-san.'

'What, no calling me by my first name anymore?' the man on the other side of the line said in a warm tone of voice that made him feel even more guilty, but he couldn't help smiling a bit despite it.

'I'm not sure I'm entitled to anymore, Ibiki-san.' he said softly, obediently leaning down to release Naruto when the boy decided the call would last forever and he had more entertaining things to do than listening to his dad talking with the older man.

'You are not entitled to doubt about it, if that's what you mean,' the man said with a chuckle. 'You can call me by my name, blondie.'

He winced, disliking the nickname just the same he had for the past years, but knowing the man was just pulling his leg. Adjusting the phone against his shoulder, he started cleaning what was left after he had washed the dishes.

'What are you doing awake at this hour?'

'The job of an editor never ends, goldilocks.' which meant he was somewhere in some poor artists house, forcing them to meet the ends they had promised weather they wanted to cooperate or not. 'This is invasion of private property!' someone yelled on the background, as if wanting to confirm the theory. 'And abuse of the treaty of human rights!'

'You should have read the small print before signing, Yuki-sensei.' the man replied smoothly. 'My caring for your rights as a human is inversely proportional to how much money you were paid for this contract. You were paid a lot, guess how little I care?' The answer was a little too muffled to make out, but Ibiki's next words weren't.

'Really? Maybe an inspirational massage will help you get inspired, sensei? I'm very good at pressure points as you remember.' Apparently the man remembered, because the only answer was a grumbled something that sounded like 'that call better be local' Minato couldn't help chuckling a bit. 'You are still a horribly cruel editor, Morino-san.'

'Only the best kind ever are, Minato-sensei.' he had to reluctantly agree to that, the problem with it being… '…I still haven't finished the book.'

'You have until April.' the man countered. 'How far behind are you?'

'A bit.' he said, failing to mention he had already finished it and just needed to start with the second draft. 'I'm not very happy with it.'

'That's what you said about the first one, and we all know how that went.'

He didn't reply to that, absently touching the necklace and adjusting the crystal cylinder back on the front of his shirt.

'Listen, you are a good writer, but a terrible judge of talent. Leave criticism to me, I'll tear you to shreds if the need arises.'

'Thank you… for everything, I mean. And I'm so sorry-'

'Are you going to start with a guilt trip?' the man asked, a little more seriously. 'Because that's not why I called. I have plenty of other enslaved talents to threaten in the middle of the night.'

'What did you call for, then…?'

'Just wanted to see how you were doing. I hadn't talked to you for a while.' That he still wanted to talk to him after all he'd done made him wonder I maybe there was some sort of stock market where he could invest in guilt. God knew he had enough of the raw material to work with.

'Thank you.'

'Stop thanking me, it gets annoying.' The man grunted a bit gruffly on the other side of the line. Minato bit back the automatic reflex to apologize, knowing it would irritate him just as badly. 'So, has anything interesting happened?' Minato sighed, looking at the pile of plates drying on the rake and slowly padded to the living room, lying down on the couch as he stared at the roof.

'Do you have the time? It's a long story.'

'Of course I do, sensei isn't going anywhere until he finished, are you sensei?' Some sort of agonic noise was the answer. 'That's the spirit! Now, you were saying…?'

#+#+#+#+#+#

Brush. The touch of the soft grey cloth touching the porcelain, the quiet swift, the light, falling down on the surface, shining, glinting. No dust. Not a microscope spot. The wiper also was, besides being naturally darker than white, clean as new. It was not new, not at all. He used it three times already. Once more after today and it will have to go away. Good things always lasted so short. He smiled, then moved his lips. Besides his a little croaky voice, in the darkened room there was only silence.

'Twinkle, twinkle, little star…' he hummed, then stood the little figurine on its place. His voice, while being the voice of an adult, had little to none of masculine traits. If anything, it sounded like a voice of a little boy. If not a girl. 'How I wonder what you are…'

He could have started a radio, a CD, or even a music station from the TV. He had one, with wide screen and HD sound, so everyone in neighborhood could wonder how to break in and steal it. If he had turned it so loud they could hear it – and gods only knew, he could. But he wouldn't do that. Not because he was afraid that it would be stolen. It was because it was late at night. And waking up the old granny that lived above him would be simply rude.

'Up above the world so high…' he sang under his breath as his hands cleaned the very important thing – the golden frame that held a picture of him and his sister together. Them and their poor home in the background, but it didn't matter, they were happy… happy… 'Like a diamond in the sky…'

It was a beautiful song, a happy song. Maybe, not so much as he sang a bit different version, their version and he couldn't really remember the original one anymore, but it didn't matter, right? It was their song, his and Karura's and it was all that was left and was his and his alone… No, not really. There were also three other songs that were left after her, like personal messages from the grave. Yashamaru smiled to himself. Very personal messages.

'When the blazing sun is gone…' he started another verse, but then the loud, screaming yell of a phone call had sounded through the silence, like a hysteric with an axe, trying to fight with the still water and destroying its beauty. He had looked toward the black smooth shape, but his calmness didn't waver. He didn't even put the photograph down as he walked to the shouting barbarian of the modern technique and pushed the button of automatic secretary. The red light flashed in the dark like an alarm signal. Soon, the angered voice followed.

'You son of a bitch!' it roared. Yashamaru once again didn't even tick at the known voice as he got back to his bed covered with flowery pattern that reminded him so much of the quilts made for dolls' houses. Speak of the devil and he'd appear. 'How many times have I told you to stay away from us?'

The blond had only smiled at that. Oh, Daichi, Daichi.

'When there nothing shines upon…' he continued like if nothing had interrupted him 'Then you show your little light…'

The fact that the man still kept his stationary number of the phone somehow, was a little miracle and it itself spoke much about how desperate he was – to have such a number in case if anything had happened. If he was him he wouldn't use it for such trivialities like threats without proofs.

'You have no rights to stay with my kids! I forbid you! If you will touch any of them once again I will tell the police! I will go to the court! I will murder you myself!' Yell, you're on the desert and no one hears you. But vultures would surely join you in your concert, they are such a good audience. Of course, he wasn't one of them. 'Fuck off!'

Oh, such a crude language he had used.

'Twinkle, twinkle, all the night…' he had hummed through the outrageous yelling and had stopped, looking at his automatic secretary like if it was a real person sitting there and trying to get his attention. After a few more words ('I know you're there! And if you aren't I'm sure you will be soon!') he had gotten up and took up the receiver.

He smiled toward his own reflection in the fantastic shaped mirror in front of him. Secession. A very good style when it comes to decorating furniture.

'Then the traveler in the dark thanks you for your little spark.' he had sung simply, like if he had picked up a microphone and not a phone. The redhead had quieted down. Maybe from shock. Or maybe because he didn't really expect an answer as he seemed to be pretty heathened over the fact what he was saying 'He could not see which way to go if you did not twinkle so.'

Click.

He had turned off the phone. And the secretary. He was not expecting any phones so late so he didn't need it. And as for the answer – it was not in the range of his interest. Humming to himself, he had got back to the bed, sitting there, cross legged.

'When the blazing sun is gone…' There. Now the picture was all clear and dusted off. Perfect. 'When there nothing shines upon…'

Now the only thing that missed was pictures in the three remaining frames. He moved his hand for one of them with a purple kitty painted over it and accidentally pushed over the small wooden frame with even smaller photograph of Daichi, black and white, cut off from the newspaper. The glass broke, showing the net of the cracks right over the young face wearing an expensive smoking. Yashamaru did nothing to pick it up.

'Though I know not what you are…' he sang and suddenly threw his head back and laughed with a laughter of a kid that had seen the beautiful trick in the circus. If he believed in signs, it would be fate coming once again a little too late. Because he had decided already. The upcoming star rising was their and their alone.

Twinkle twinkle little star.


	20. 20: Laptop

Daichi had slowly put the receiver of his mobile down. He didn't know what to think of what he had heard, but he didn't like it. It sounded scary. It sounded like a threat.

'Daddy…' the redhead from the canopy called for him, already tired of being left alone and left alone in his lack of sleep 'Daddy, daddy… Santa.'

Daichi had turned his head around and looked at where his last born was pointing. In their old calendar that showed July (which was having exactly the dates set up as December in their year now) there was a childishly drawn smiling face of a Santa Clause over the fat number of twenty four. The redhead internally moaned in pain. The only one more thing he had forgotten about why he kept on hating winter more and more.

'Go to sleep, Gaara.' he had muttered and walked back to the sofa. Tomorrow. He will worry about this tomorrow.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato welcomed the morning of the 4th of December with a newly lit cigarette and a sore ear and shoulder. Maybe he should just get himself one of those speakerphones or start depending solely on Skype for communications, using phone would ruin his back if he didn't find a more comfortable way of keeping the phone in place and his hands free. It was beautiful enough a day, with a bright sun shining off on puffy clouds and the snow that had accumulated from the night. Really, it was, but he still wanted to go back home. It was funny, he had lived over half of his life in Wind country, yet he couldn't help but think of Fire country as his home. There were too many sour memories here, too many things to dislike and want to leave behind. This was the country he had escaped from twelve years ago and somewhere he sincerely had never thought to come back to.

Did having willingly chosen to come here have anything to do with a yet undiscovered vein of masochism? He would have liked to be able to talk with Sarutobi sensei on regards of it, but he knew what the man would have said- it was just a passing moment of homesickness. His ex therapist hadn't been sure him moving to this country had been a good idea, even if it was a different city and under a different name, but it was the only place he'd know Kaho would never have thought of looking. She knew perfectly well he would never willingly have set place here.

But still, he missed Fire country, filled to the brim with the bitter memories of Kushina and how she wasn't there anymore as it might have been. It was Ibiki's call, that's what it was. In his mind, the man would always be Ibiki, no matter how he might have called him Morino in private. He didn't really mean anything by it, it's just his last name fit him better than his real one.

And of course, Ibiki hadn't liked what he had told him, no matter how little he had ended up really shared. Oh, he'd been happy he had gotten a job, gotten Naruto enrolled in a good kinder and has started therapy again. Those were good things to be proud about right? It was when he mentioned that one of Naruto's little friends at the kinder was having a rough time and how he had gotten attached to the boy that the older man had gotten caught on the topic and refused to let go, asking him more and more questions until he had finally told him he didn't want to discuss the topic anymore.

He just hoped he hadn't spilled enough for the man to start an investigation. Sometimes it was scary, how much Ibiki could get out of anyone without them even noticing. In some sense he was thankful that the other man still cared for him enough to try to take care of him, but the idea was far too tempting on its own for it to be good. He hadn't just moved because he had been scared of Kaho, he also needed to distance himself some from his safety nets to realize he was an adult and supposed to take care of himself, besides just making sure his son had everything he could need.

That had been one of the most painful things Sarutobi had told him, but now he saw how right it had been. He had thought that Kushina's loss and the panic and despair it had left on him excused him from properly taking care of his son, just as he had later believed that by trying to be a good father he had every right to let others take care of him. He had done that. He had tried to deny it in the spot, and it had taken him a lot of sleepless nights to come to terms with it. Not because the notion was too crazy to follow, but because if he accepted it, he'd have to do something about it, and he didn't think he could handle it, not when he didn't even know what he wanted. Because he wanted Naruto to be happy. He wanted his son to have everything he hadn't had, a family, a home, a sense of security…

But when it came to himself, he didn't know what he wanted. Of course, like everyone else he wanted to be happy, but when Sarutobi-sensei had asked him what did he think that would make him happy, he had fallen in a dead silence that became more painful with every second that passed. And in the end, Baki was right. He shouldn't be worrying over someone else's kids. It didn't matter how painful the situation was, it was not his problem and it was keeping him from concentrating on his own, only he couldn't close the door on their faces and wave goodbye.

It's not that he wasn't capable of it (and he wasn't), it was that he didn't want to. If he could help those kids –and yes, even their mess of a father that he still wasn't sure if he was supposed to be afraid of or not- he would do it. He knew exactly what Kushina would have thought about it, too, what she would have said.

'I might be a poor thing to need, Red, but I promise I'll do what I can.' he whispered to himself as he inhaled the last traces of smoke from the cigarette. He wished the answering silence could have been a physical thing. Maybe then he would have had something to strike and blame over the unfairness of it all. It took him some time for him to finally remove the burnt out cancer stick off his lips and toss it into what was left of the long-cold coffee, and even then it took him several moment to decide to go back to his room and change for a new day. Something sweet sounded nice for breakfast, and he had the time. When one wasn't sure what to do, there was always some more time.

Five minutes later, the doorbell rang. And no one else, but of course, the famous three siblings stood there, with Temari drowsily holding a big piece of paper, on which something was written. It looked like 'I'm late' but could also mean 'Dim kite' or 'In lock'. If anything, the scribbling has been barely recognizable and it was held only by the good will of the girl, who seemed to be both too cold to fall asleep and too sleepy to care for the cold. Her older-younger brother looked like a living stock of a narcolepsy. The youngest of them, for a change, hugged the teddy to himself and looked at Minato with a gaze that seemed to shine in the still dim morning like sixty watts light bulb.

'Santa.' he had whispered, twenty seventh time in a row this morning which had already made Daichi yell in frustration with a loud 'Stop that!' which made Gaara wonder what kind of a big secret was this so daddy had to act that way (of course, there was no way Minato would know about that). It was probably because it was still early and not everyone knew that Santa had really been out there, making presents. So he decided to be a good boy and keep it to himself (the knowledge coming to calendar to many other people didn't strike his head for a single moment). But since Naruto's dad was such a nice, good man, there was no reason to not share the news also with him.

The redhead glanced both at his sleeping brother and almost-sleeping sister and covered his mouth as they often did in movies, so he was sure nobody would hear him.

'He lives.' he whispered in the deepest conspiracy. His siblings didn't seem to hear him or acknowledge it. Maybe because all they did was sleeping.

'Daddy said to say that he said he was late.' muttered the girl and gave the blond the card upside down.

'And that he was thanksy.' muttered the other boy, not as deep in his sleep as it seemed.

'Thankful.'

'That's what I said.'

'Daddy said that.'

'Yes.'

'Stupiii…-' the word was interrupted by the yawn and left hanging. Kankuro didn't seem to catch on the phrase as it was left.

'Santa lives?' the blond asked conversationally as he took one look outside, another to the kids and a third one to the note before pushing the three of them inside and helping them with their shoes and jackets. Not for the first time, he wondered what sort of schedule the kid's father had for work. It was even earlier than the last time he had brought them there, only barely past seven in the morning. Pretty early for a Saturday, especially if he worked on a full shift.

'No, he doesn't.' muttered tiredly Kankuro, still looking like if he had his eyes shut on super glue. Wasn't that obvious? How such a grown up, awesome man could not know it? 'Gaara is just being a baby.'

The redhead had only looked at him like if he saw his brother for the first time and hugged his teddy even tighter, holding it up like a shield right before his nose.

'Yes, he does.' he said with a light frown and slight pout in his voice 'You're just a heathen.'

'I'm not a chicken.' answered Kankuro back, finally cracking open one if his eyes, but only barely.

'Heathen.' added the girl immediately 'It means you're hot.'

'I'm not hot.' protested the boy and to show that he had touched the girl's face. Temari had jumped out of his range with a squeal that showed a potential energy that wasn't visible on the first glance 'See? I'm cold! It's snowing outside!'

'That was awful!' squeaked the little blonde 'You're stupid, Kankuro! Stuuupiiid!'

'I'm not stupid! I'm not stupid-!'

'Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…!'

'You're both chickens.' said Gaara and frowned even more hiding his head inside his teddy 'Santa lives and he won't give you presents because you're so loud.'

But his words were ignored as both of his older siblings seemed to snap out of their coma and started shouting at each other how one was stupider from the table's leg or how much smaller brain from a peanut could be, if the head of the other was opened. So instead, the redhead had looked at Minato and lifted his teddy. 'Mommy says that Santa exists.'

'Does he now…?' he asked kindly, automatically leaning down to give both of the older kids a small hug and ask them to be quiet because Naruto was still sleeping. Not than an earthquake could wake him up so early, but still…

'It's early still. Do you guys want to go have a nap in my room? I will wake you up for breakfast in a few hours.' he paused a moment to brush a hand over Gaara's forehead, pleased by the lack of temperature. It was funny, for such a weak-looking child, the little redhead somehow seemed to avoid getting seriously sick. If he had cried half as hard as the redhead had been for the past weeks, he would have lost his voice completely already.

'Yes.' said to the question Kankuro. Dad woke him up at the ungodly hour and his only explanation was that he didn't want to be late (and he never did, but he had woke them up much later usually, so Kankuro didn't understand such strange behavior), so they had to get ready and be ready now. But when they were ready, dad suddenly started looking for many things around so they sat near the door and waited for him. It was not uncommon, but Kankuro felt lied to, that dad did such things. Sometimes adults were just not trustworthy.

'Yes.' said Temari as she had followed his brother to take a long nap. She couldn't really sleep from the stress she had lived through the previous day – every time she had closed her eyes she saw their uncle creeping through the door and her being unable to protest, once again making daddy so sad, so very, very sad. And mad. She didn't know what was worse. She just wanted it to go away. She had even tried sneaking out of the bed to see if she could sleep with daddy, so she was sure that even if uncle came, no one would take her away (daddy always said he wouldn't allow this and she believed him), but when she saw Gaara looking at her through the darkness of the night, she had backed away to her bed.

If the baby brother was feeling insecure then it was better to leave them alone. Because if Gaara had felt he was not being enough attention, the night could turn into a one big fight. She remembered once how it had happened, not long after mommy had passed away. Gaara had been crying and crying and crying and he had tried to get so much more of daddy to himself and when he tried to take away her spot – so little she had for herself – she had finally pushed at him, he started bawling so loud, that daddy's got mad, stood up and left them two alone for the rest of the night, locking himself in the bathroom. Temari was not sure why it all happened that way, but she understood that Gaara's peace was much more important, and besides, she was not a baby anymore, so she had to act like an adult.

That didn't mean she had much of a sleep for the rest of the night, and when daddy woke her up, she was grateful that he was still by her side, somehow.

'No.' said Gaara, because he had simply didn't feel sleepy. He lied for the whole night very much awake, starring into the depth of the night, excited about the big drawing of Santa in the calendar. So far he had forgotten that Santa existed, but now that he remembered, he couldn't just get out of his head. Because Santa meant happiness, and not because of the presents (though presents were indeed, very, very nice), but because somehow he felt that it had to do with the feeling of calmness and singing and nice smells that happened only around that time.

And because he knew that around such atmosphere he didn't miss anything, then it probably meant that mommy and daddy are going to be together pretty soon, because really, what else would he need, if not mommy and daddy being happy together? He couldn't wait for twenty fourth already. So, instead of laying down, he had followed the blond and started telling him how much he had remembered about the Santa, and surprisingly, he remembered quite much. Only not in the right order.

'And he rides on the chimneys.' he chanted, dragging the teddy around everywhere 'And one of them is called Red because it's… it's… not grey.'

Minato nodded and 'oh'ed and 'ah'ed when appropriate. He was used to such kinds of conversation already, but it seemed like Naruto was rubbing off more than expected on Gaara. Apparently being a chatterbox was rather contagious a state. He let Gaara chat away while he found a kilt to drape over the sleepy children, leaving the door barely a bit open so they would have a little light not to trip on anything, checked on Naruto, and then he just picked Gaara up and walked him to the kitchen, sitting him on the wide sill he had been perched on most of the night while he made some tea for himself and warmed a bit of milk for the little redhead to sip on.

When he was done with it and he finished leaving the kitchen clean enough to consider working on it, he went to get his laptop, set it next to Gaara and brought a chair closer.

'Let's see what I can do for breakfast today, and, okay?'

In another side of the town, the much older redhead had strived to live through yet another day. And it was a challenge, because the day had only started and was supposed to last for long, long time. So, the first thing he did, was getting into his office, and burying himself with as much work as possible. Being an accountant, that was not hard – there was always something to look up, to count again and again, the numbers to add and to take. He had managed to do that until the ten in the morning. And it was beautiful. Then the door to his office had opened and it stopped being beautiful.

'Good morning, Mr. Sabaku.' said the young, pale man, looking like an utter newbie. But Daichi was not an airhead, and he worked for far too long to not recognize the old and new faces. And if there was any worker that spent longer time near Orochimaru, it had to be Yakushi Kabuto. He had immediately straightened up, wanting to look more respectful, but all he managed was a pitiful look from behind the thick glasses.

'I came from Mr. Orochimaru's orders.' said the youngster and did not move to sit on the chair, even if he had pointed at it. 'He calls you to join us at the current project for the company.' And as he said that, he moved out as quickly as he came, leaving him alone in the office.

Project? What project? He was no person to get into such things. He had no knowledge about the actual music or tastes of people. He also had no knowledge about how far and what kind of project it was. When he was about to decide whether to try to get out of the office and get himself busy somewhere in the different part of the building, the door had opened again, showing the impatient face of the Yakushi once more.

'Are you coming?' he barked. Without any official name, not even a polite 'sir'. It seemed that for such an underling of Orochimaru he counted less than a dirt on the boots. 'I don't have the whole day.'

So, he followed. The next moment he found himself to be locked in a small room along with the grey-haired assistant, strange pair of identical twins that seemed to be fond of using green lipstick and drag queen clothes and Orochimaru himself. At least he was no alone with him, but that really didn't change anything; the man had treated him as an air, and at the same time the vague accidental touches and brushes at his private bubble of personal space made him feel like a desired piece of meat – with no possibility to speak up. Because when he tried to at least say something about bringing the coffee and getting up, Yakushi had quieted him up, like if he had said something heretic.

So he sat in silence and it was not good, because the windows were shut close and the feeling of suffocating pretty soon became overwhelming. And the worst from it all was that neither of them – not the assistant, not the guest and neither did the director – told him what he was supposed to do. So, he sat in the corner and made short notes from the meeting and tried not to think what would happen if he had suddenly started screaming or simply hyperventilated. Four hours later, when the meeting had finally ended, the glassy yellow eyes shifted to him like if they saw him for the first time and blinked in surprise.

'And what are you doing here?' hissed the pale man and showed him the door 'Get back to work!'

Daichi had only looked at him stunned, not knowing what to say. He had opened his mouth surely, but then he saw the Yakushi smiling arrogantly and decided to leave the matter without a word. It was better not to worsen his situation. He left, hearing the humiliating laughter from the man named 'Sakon', as the other twin commented at his lack of ability to comprehend the situation. He felt mobbed and couldn't even form how it did happen, as nothing had really happened after all. He had stopped at the coffee machine and drank a heartful portion of strong black coffee. He regretted he couldn't smoke after all. Drinking coffee seemed to be such a sad way of venting the frustration.

He was mostly left alone for the rest of the day. Mostly, because it seemed that once his office was entered, it became a train station for whatever Orochimaru needed. So Yakushi, as his personal assistant, came now and then and asked for everything, even the things he had reported him again and again. And at the same time he couldn't understand why the man was suddenly so interested, as he had never really showed any interest before, even if Orochimaru had really needed something from him and called his office from far away from the lack of other possibilities. When he had finally got out of the work, it was late. But it was not as bad as he thought it would be. Which didn't mean he liked what's happened.

'One day…' he thought as he had got into the car. The light of the fuel had showed that gas was slowly drifting away and the tank was getting hungry again. Great. 'One day I'll change my job.'

'The world may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.' answered the radio with idyllic tone.

'Oh, shut up.' he muttered and turned it off. He had enough of irony in his life. At least he didn't think about Yashamaru for the whole day.

Minato hadn't had time to worry about much of anything either, because kids had been pretty much what one could expect from kids that had rested enough, had a good breakfast and found themselves with vast amounts of time to have fun in various ways. They were loud, energetic and unstoppable. Most people would have been irritated with them after a whole day, if not downright exhausted- And really, Minato was exhausted, but for wholly different reasons. Inspiration had hit him, hard. In a single day he had rewritten three complete chapters and was starting on the fourth.

His eyes itched, his head hurt, and he had chosen about the worst position for his back when he'd last sat down on the couch after stopping to give the kids some lunch. God, he was happy. This was the most productive he had been in almost a full year. Sure, it was just rewriting a draft he already had, but he had changed so many things it could barely be considered the same thing- if he kept at this rhythm he'd have to change the ending, which he was all for, considering how much he hated the current on. As it was, he got distracted by what was happening and if it hadn't been for Temari and Kankuro's impromptu seventh death match of the day, he wouldn't have even noticed the hour.

By the time the kid's father rang the door, Minato had barely finished throwing the ingredients in the pot.

'I'm so sorry, I lost track of time.' he excused himself, not really looking very apologetic- if anything, he looked the most calmed and content he had ever looked in the man's' presence before, even with the hairclips holding back longish bangs and the glasses he was currently wearing. The man looked at his appearance with a moment of quiet musing, then looked away, already hearing the steps of his kids coming to greet him.

'That's nothing. I didn't really plan on staying.' he said as the little redhead had launched at his leg and hugged it tightly. He ignored him altogether 'I'm sorry for dumping them at you so early. I… had my reasons.'

'I…' said the redhead, distracted as he looked down at his son being petted by the blond. Gaara closed his eyes in happiness and then looked back at him, immediately reaching out for him. Daichi looked up at the blond, glancing down at the kid once as he moved forward 'Yes. If you wouldn't mind.'

He felt hungry. Tired and hungry and he wanted some normal atmosphere, even if it had to mean he had to steal from someone else's home to do that. Gaara let out a protesting cry as he ran after him. He looked down.

'What are you doing?' he hushed at him 'Stop bringing me shame!'

Gaara looked back at him and lifted his hands even higher. When he didn't do anything to react on that, he put them down and hugged his teddy closer. He had to be good after all. Santa didn't like rude kids. Naruto gave the older redhead an openly unfriendly look at the man's reaction, before taking Gaara's hand and whispering to him something too suspiciously Z's and R's laden to be Wind country dialect, before tugging him firmly away.

'Not at all, please come in.' the older blond said, looking every bit as tired (if the bags on his eyes were any clue) but also a lot more at ease with said tiredness than the redhead. He barely stopped to make sure the door was closed before walking back to the kitchen, just as the first chorus for 'Goodbye blue skies' came from the laptop's speakers. The blond hummed along part of the song as he inspected the food, then turned around and blinked at the older redhead, as if he were surprised he had followed him instead of the kids. 'Did you make it in time in the end?'

The man looked at him, startled. He was getting used to comfortable silence around him as he was not as sociable as he was expected to be. The question shook his frame a bit.

'Why… yes. Of course, yes.' he said, remembering that he actually was not the last one to enter the building. And that really was rare. 'I made it. Thank you.'

The younger man smiled absently, reaching to tuck a few loose strands of hair back in place and just then noticing that he was still wearing the hairclips, blushing as he tried not to think what he must have looked like... He immediately started combing through his hair with his hand to get the dozen or so black sticks out of place then brushed it.

'Ah, sorry, sorry about that, I was doing something with the-' he made a gesture towards the laptop. As if proud of being noticed, the march for 'The show must go on' started playing, making its owner wince and reach to lower the volume to a soft buzz. 'And then I forgot all about it…'

Leaving them in a corner of the counter, he combed through his hair one last time make sure he hadn't forgotten any, but left on his glasses. The truth was that he had practically forgotten he had them on.

'It's no problem. It's nice to have people in the house, it's usually too quiet.' he turned back towards the food, stirring the pot a little. 'The kids didn't look like they slept too much, though, was everything alright with…?' The man didn't look like if he'd rested much at all, but after what had happened, he didn't think he would have had he been in the redhead's place.

'The kids slept the usual.' said the redhead and dipped down for his own cup. It was no use to tell Minato that normal was a very stretched definition that didn't apply to any of his kids. Kankuro slept like If he was dead for the longest if he was left be, Temari had light nervous sleep all the time and Gaara didn't sleep for long periods of time. This time it was the same, only he didn't check on his two older kids as he was too busy with trying to make Gaara asleep. Without much success. Gaara was just too awake. He glanced at the hairclips, left on the table.

Now a simple thin girly man had turned but to be a little more manly, but not much. His frame couldn't be masked by hair no matter what he did. He closed his eyes. He hadn't even thought of it before, but it came out as If he did for years. Surprising how smoothly it went, a step before his brain could catch on it.

'Christmas is coming.' he stated quietly, looking at his brown liquid. 'They will soon start get the Holiday's Fever. If they're not annoying now, they will be.'

'Yes. As usual.' Minato said, smiling a bit humored up. His definition of 'usual' could be stretched from two hours to eleven, depending on the day and with his kids, he forgot how routine looked like. This time he managed to sleep four hours and a half with a break in the middle when Gaara's started crying as he remembered something on his own. Or maybe even fell asleep for a moment and got a bad dream. But it was most likely a bad memory since Gaara was bouncy all the time.

'Gaara suffers from chronic insomnia.' he said finally, tasting a bit from his own coffee. It was bitter, but he kept smiling through. 'But I think you noticed that already. Quite a heavy case, started after his mother died.'

And that was a lie, because that started only a bit later, when there was no one who could substitute the lack of the mother. He was never good at being the warmer part in the relationship. Which, when he counted, lasted for more than half of Gaara's life. Quite a failure when it came to his abilities of managing on his own. What a bitter coffee.

The blond played with his tea cup, a little uncomfortable with the man looking at him in the way he was. Made him feel a bit like an interesting insect about to get skewered with a needle. He started desperately searching for some sort of topic to change the conversation.

'…did you?' and because that question suddenly seemed incredibly personal, he rushed the next one. 'Naruto told me Gaara doesn't sleep much. I think I've only seen him sleep the first time you came over and… he did have a nap here around the time he got the stitches, though. That's odd. He is really young for that.' Not that he was trying to imply kids didn't need their mothers or that losing their own at such young age wouldn't be somewhat traumatizing, but it had been years since then. Gaara should have gotten over it by now, he was too young to have such a deep impression. He wanted to ask a question, on regards of it, but he wasn't very sure how he was supposed to ask without sounding rude and intrusive. In the end he settled for just asking, because if the man felt he was being nosy- well, he didn't doubt he'd tell him so. 'I'm sorry, but is the insomnia a diagnostic he got?'

The redhead's features slowly hardened and thus, closed up. He quietly took another sip of coffee as he looked up at the blond. What was he trying to imply? That he didn't know what's happened to his own kid?

'Yes.' he answered in a cold tone 'It's a diagnostic he's got.' To tell the truth, it was the other way around. He came to the doctor only once as Gaara couldn't just calm down and cried all the time. He thought that something bad was happening to him, and it came out it was only 'stress and dehydration causing the rise of a fever. Stress?

Like if a kid knew what a stress was! All he did was eating and sleeping at the time being, so he was not supposed to know what stress was. This had only worsened his state in which he was and he did his best to not conceal his feeling inside for long. It took him some time to finally get that loss of a mother for such a small kid indeed could be a big stress factor. He was too blinded to see it by then. But he didn't like being poked at that by anyone else. He made mistakes but he cared for them. Gods saw he did.

'Life verified the diagnosis.' he said finally, just as coldly 'His lack of proper sleeping lasted for longer than year, so it indeed is an insomnia.'

'That… that's not what I-' The blond would have taken a step back if the counter would have let him, almost wishing the man were back to analyze him like dry butterfly from a catalog Instead of the current glare. 'I'm asking because insomnia can be caused by a lot of things. I just wondered what you had been told… I mean, it could be because of his mother, but it could be genetic, or chemical or something else.' he said in a softer tone, again looking down at his tea as if it held the secrets of the universe. Or Maybe just the one to keep this man from getting mad at him, if only for one night. '…I'm sorry.'

'Doesn't seem like anything like that to me.' said Daichi out of pure stubbornness now, leaving his own cup on the table. He was sure that he didn't remember anyone from his own family to suffer from such thing, but his knowledge ended on his grandparents. As for Karura's family… well. There was a 'maybe', but since Karura was dead she was not going to tell him and also because of that trying to contact them became impossible. Or he wished for that. He just didn't try.

'Gaara just eats too little and leads a nervous life. That's all there is to it.' he said and looked out of the window. The weather seemed very unwelcoming at such time of the day. The blond frowned a bit, risking a glance up and keeping it there once he found the redhead to be looking in a different direction. That was the man being stubborn and basically admitting he was basing a delicate medical problem of his child on his own diagnose simply because.

'If it were that, it can be treated, but if it could also be treated if it were anything else. They just wouldn't take the same things.'

'He is too young to be taking drugs.' said the man, brushing the thing aside. The reality was that it was not Gaara who was too young but his wallet which was too empty in the end. Another reason why he kept on holding on the fact that it was stress and it had to be stress and it couldn't be anything else but stress. 'Maybe when he will be older I will check him up. If it won't go away by then I mean.'

Now he was being absurd, but if he started on that he would have to admit that Kankuro also did wet bed from time to time and that it could be a problem with bladder as he was too old for that and that Temari had this strange recent habit of chewing things with one side of face and she didn't have a dentist's check up back since two years ago. He also kept on having the burning sensation behind the breastbone that radiated to the neck and throat, making him feel nauseous. It was easier to ignore it altogether when everyone pretended that nothing was happening. The blond obviously didn't like the answer, but there wasn't much else he could do. He wouldn't have minded offering to take Gaara to a doctor himself, but that would be extremely strange and the man was probably suspicious enough of him as it was.

'All right, but… if he falls asleep here, would you like me to wake him up, or let him sleep?' Of course he'd like to let him rest, but maybe Gaara getting sleepy in the afternoon meant he'd sleep normally at night and, well… he couldn't say the man had ever looked well rested since he'd met him, but he was looking a lot more tired now.

The man looked at him and smiled once again, like if he heard a good joke.

'You can give me a call then, I'll throw a party.' he said. He knew that such things just happened too rarely and he knew that Gaara was getting too little sleep at all. That's why he was smaller than kids his age and particularly slower on taking up things than other kids. He was still wearing diapers when he was sent first to the kindergarten and his talk was still slurred and babyish, even if at his age both Kankuro and Temari were actually pretty fluent. He was far from denying him any sleep, even if it meant he wouldn't sleep later, because he never knew what would happen later. Unless Gaara slept on the train rail, of course.

'Speaking of which…' he said, eyeing the man from underneath his eyelids, as eyelashes would be an understatement. The man seemed to be wealthy and comfortable, but completely lost in this all together while he was being surprised by the cozy flat and the paranoia that walls were too thin to not let kids overhear anything. He needed to know the man more, but he also needed to get out of that place that was too foreign for him. 'Christmas is coming. How about a beer sometime nearby?'

At such occasion he could waste a few coins to have a manly going out. He just didn't have to drink coffee for a day or three. The question came a bit out of nowhere when he had thought the man had been angry at him not a few seconds ago, and the way the man was looking at him now made him feel a little uncomfortable. It felt a bit as if he were playing with him.

'Um…' Minato stroked the edge of the cup to clear a bit of spill he hadn't noticed before. 'I can't drink… Actually, I can drink, I just shouldn't.'

Because he drank a little too much before, a little too insistently. But that had been years ago, and ever since he'd started medication he hadn't taken anything, exactly because of that… Only the drugs he took.

'The pills I'm taking- I mean, I could drink, I guess, it's not that strong medication, but-' The more he fumbled with words, the more stupid and uncomfortable he felt, to the point he wished one of the kids would just come and interrupt. Of course, kids only ever did that when one didn't want them to, so he was left to do the only thing he could. 'Okay, sure.' Nonalcoholic beer wouldn't kill me, even if he thought it tastes like old watered down wine made of fake grapes and mixed with piss. 'That'd be nice. Thank you.'

'Good. Then we're appointed.' said the man as he looked out at the window again. Then his gaze fell on the clock in the nearby wall. 'It seems it's my time to go. I don't want to fall asleep behind the wheel.'

'_Okej_-' the blond quickly moved away from the perch in the counter, turning to run some water on his tea to help himself lose some of the embarrassed blush he'd gotten out of his own tongue tiredness. 'Let me know if you want me to do this again next weekend.'

The man stopped as he drank up the rest of his coffee. He had to use up the opportunities to get free food after all.

'If that wouldn't be a big problem…' he said with uncertainty. Leaving a kid was already a big thing, but there was not something one could easily ask of.

'None at all...' Minato risked a look around to find the man staring at him- normal this time. He risked a small smile. 'I work better with noise around. I can't concentrate otherwise.'

'Maybe you should invest in radio.' thought the redhead, but he didn't say it out loud. It would risk the change of the blond's mind and he didn't want any of that.

'Deal.' He said instead 'I'll drop them off in the morning then.' he said and smiled back a bit hesitantly. There was something in this pose that pushed him to answer with the same movement. After that he went out of the kitchen, calling his kids to get ready to leave the place. Which was met without much of a protest… or as little as there could be, as only when Gaara started sulking, Daichi immediately threatened to leave him behind. It was almost sad as the kid started putting on the clothes, completely missing the fact that he could stay over the house with warmth, food, clothes and most of all – a friend, and instead hurried back to the dirty hole after the harsh father.

Minato stared a moment after the man smiled back, rather surprised by the reaction despite the fact it was what he had probably been hoping for. Odd night… Off, rather nice day, despite how tired he felt. Regardless of what the man really thought about him because of his odd comment, Minato had really meant his words- he couldn't really concentrate unless there was a somewhat noisy atmosphere around him. And yes, he did listen to music while he worked, but when you had grown used to writing with a woman that suddenly decided one had to repaint the whole kitchen and had to do it NOW, you kind of grew accustomed to keeping an ear out for the sound of her breaking something or tripping or simply yelling in frustration because the kitchen now had a livid orange handprint in the floor that wasn't going to get out- After that, no matter how noisy Naruto could become, it never really wasn't the same. He probably should be actually thankful Naruto wasn't old enough to reach Kushina's scale of disaster.

He finished washing the cups and walked out to finish straightening Gaara's jackets (well, Naruto's, actually) onto the little redhead as the father followed suit with the older kids.

'What about tomorrow?'

'Tomorrow?' Asked the man a bit tiredly as he zipped up Kankuro's coat up to his neck 'What about tomorrow?'

As far as he remembered it was Sunday. And it meant he could sleep and focus on the fact that he had a laundry from the whole week to do, which meant playing with the washing machine (thanks gods, it still worked) or by hands. Possibly better by hands, it was less water wasting. Gaara had only looked up at the man and patted the new jacket approvingly, like if it was a wearable plushy toy. It felt nice indeed.

'Teddy wants one too.' he muttered, bringing up the toy to shove it nearly right into Minato's face. The older redhead turned his gaze toward them, making a rather pitiful expression as he saw what Gaara was wearing.

'Gaara… what did I tell you about giving it back…' he started tiredly. The kid immediately looked back at him, then at the blond man.

'But…' he started, obviously confused. 'But I…'

'It's enough. Just give it back, say thank you and we're going. It's late.' said the man with the 'I'm-too-tired-to-rise-my-voice-anymore' fashion.

'But I like it…'

'Gaara…'

'Will you buy me one then?'

'Don't anger me!' The redhead had only curled up at those words.

'Sorry.' he muttered and started undoing his jacket. Minato stopped him, smiling at the redhead and poking his nose when the little boy looked up at him.

'I told him to keep it a few more weeks, I don't need it right now.' he said as he zipped it back up. 'The house is a mess as it is anyway, Naruto's just kick it under the bed pr behind the couch and I'd forget it exist until July. He'd do it on purpose too, he's attached to the one he's wearing now.' His son, who for once seemed to catch up with what his father was trying to do, simply nodded seriously, his eyes wide and innocent.

'I like to wear orange.' Minato made an odd face when he turned to look at the parka that was still thrown haphazardly on the couch's edge.

'You look like Kenny when you do.'

'Who?' The older blond just smiled and ruffled his hair, decidedly more easily than the one he'd given the redhead in the kitchen. The man looked at him crestfallen, but didn't say anything. He saw that weather was particularly unpleasant, so he didn't want to risk sickness of his kids' over the fact he could be indebted again. Which didn't mean he was pleased about it.

'Say goodbyes.' he said instead, not uttering a word of complaint, but not thanking either. Then he simply turned around and opened the door, going out. The kids quickly waved at both of the blondes and exited the house with usual style – and that meant 'see yas' from Kankuro, 'goodbyes' from Temari and 'muhs' from Gaara. The redhead seemed to never really do anything else beside waving his hand, like if the thing would make him lose the sight of his father lately.

Despite liking the noise, by the time the kids were gone and he finished cleaning everything and making sure Naruto got a bath and went to bed, Minato was exhausted. He tried finishing checking what he had done today, but it wasn't entirely surprising that he woke up three hours later with a terrible kink on his neck and a very sore temple from where one of the legs of his glasses had dug into his skin. He cursed softly when the thing caught on a missing hair clip when he tried to remove it, some stray hairs being yanked off his scalp as result. At least it was enough to wake him up enough to go run some water on the new cup he'd used and go wash his teeth and change into sleeping gear.

By then he realized he hadn't really asked what he meant- he hadn't meant to ask the redhead about tomorrow, but about Monday, and weather he wanted him tom keep picking Gaara up, but he decided that could wait until Monday itself, he could always text message him that morning. It was too late to think too much about the matter right now, or more accurately, he was too tired to do so, so probably going to sleep before three in the morning was a good idea tonight. That he was used to sleeping five hours or less a day didn't mean he wasn't aware of the fact that wasn't very healthy. He saved the document again, charged it into his pen drive and while he started shutting down programs he accidentally opened a new Firefox windows.

The homepage was set to open in the polish search for Google, which was the one he used the most when he was working, but as he stared at the hl=pl at the end of the url, he moved mouse (he had never quite gotten the hang of the touch pad one) to the bolded option that said _Przejdź do Google Suna_ and clicked. The page's default bar blinked intermittently, waiting for him to input something. Leaving that window for a moment, he opened the outlook document where he kept the numbers and names of the list he had gotten from Naruto's kinder at the beginning of the year, highlighting the one he needed and copying it back in the Google page, before adding the name. 'Sabaku no Daichi' he stared at the screen one moment, turning to look around as if he wanted to make sure no one was spying on him then hit enter.

The computer blinked at him with usual change of screens and then on the first place could be visible the website of the Suna's leading bank that networked through almost the whole country and advertised itself with the picture hourglass that was supposed to show how safe the money in bank were ('our time is timeless so don't waste your time and hide your money in our bank') which was stupid, but it probably worked since it was a well known brand. The problem was that the link only pointed at the name of the place and it was actually called 'Suna no Sabaku'. So, it was a dead end.

The second link pointed at someone of the same surname, but the name was 'Koichi' and it seemed it was a database of well known professors and doctors. The man was long deceased and wasn't known for anything much beside writing a few articles on how economics faded through the times that were important thirty years ago. The third link proceeded through the online newspaper and news also printed few years ago – the googled page said something about the son of a wealthy family being missing and being searched through the 'Have you seen this man?' program.

The names were fading into the hidden part of the text and when the link was clicked, it seemed that the archives around that date had been removed from the site. The rest was pretty much unrelated (if you didn't count the database of people in Suna and mixed links of people who had surname 'Sabaku' or names beginning with 'Daichi' – which seemed to be a rather popular one).

Minato stared at the screen for a moment, not really bothering with scrolling further than the first actual page, then went back to the text bar and input the name again, this time between the " signs. If the name didn't show up with much more than that, either the man had changed his name or wasn't a psychotic murderer or hadn't recently been caught beating people to death, and that'd be enough for him tonight.

The Google bleeped at him once again, this time sending him a bold italic question: 'Sabaku no Daichi or did you mean Sabaku no Sasori'. The image of the red-haired teen done in circa style popped up from the Google graphics and once again there was an article about the wealthy family searching for the missing son through the 'Have you seen this man?' program, this time on the first place.

The second and third link were about the same family, told in long words how the pair of siblings long ago decided to open a small business on the politic related topic and how it bloomed into a rich affair, only to get closed later as it was found cursed – it seemed that a lot of family members went missing through the years and so far, none of them had been found, so the place lost the trust of people. The articles were mostly talking about the people named 'Akasuna', but since it kept repeating the word 'Sabaku no' as it was a nick that was supposedly chosen by Sasori to hide, it hot linked as first. The rest of pages went into complete trash, providing information related only by pure luck.

Minato had no interest in banks, as his accounts were perfectly happy where they were right now, and had no interest in the family. Apparently Gaara's father wasn't as violent as he proclaimed or for some reason the name hadn't been disclosed, which Minato knew called for a bit more money than what he thought the man could actually afford. For a moment he wondered about checking for the man's brother in law, who was, oddly enough, a lot creepier (he wasn't going to get over the 'mommy' part, that was for sure) but unfortunately he didn't know his last name, or even how the first one was spelled. He closed the link, then turned off the laptop and padded back to bed, straightening a bit the slight mess the kids had done, but not really going much further than pulling on the covers before as he immediately started drifting, he thought about taking one of his pills, but he was tired enough and didn't really feel down at all, just tired. He could do without today.

And the days passed by as usual. Daichi didn't even notice as Sunday passed by, as usual preoccupied with housework he didn't have head for doing (but he did it actually pretty well, experience was gained by practicing as he had no other choice but to learn) and for trying to feed kids and to repair their clothes along with trying to check their homework (which he was supposed to do more often than once a week, but he simply didn't have any other possibilities for that). Thankfully, Temari was old enough to help him with that, and since she had her sewing lessons in her classes (the school seemed to be pretty traditional when it came to such classes and Daichi was thankful for that) she did more good job than bad one.

In the end the other two kids had their share of helping hands as he took them to the mall and they found a very low priced food (that was about to be terminated, but it didn't matter as they ate it right away). The only thing that went wrong was actually the moment when he accidentally took the route near the Pet Shop an Kankuro got glued to the glass immediately.

'Dad, please…' he bawled, as he spreaded his nose and cheeks on the front window 'I will take it out every day and I will teach it to pee outside, just buy me one, dad, please, for Christmas, dad, I didn't get a birthday present this year…'

He had to almost tear him off the cage with polka dotted little Dalmatians and as rare as it was, it pushed Kankuro into a bawling riot, which, when he finally subsided, turned into sulking that lasted for the rest of the day. It seemed that rationality of having and not having pet with their everyday way of living didn't get through that boy. Once he even barked at him that if he wants to have a pup then he will have to sell his younger brother to maintain the balance at home. Much to his horror Kankuro agreed to that quite fiercely and since Gaara stood nearby and heard everything it turned into one of the worst psychological fights of his life.

Only after third day when he finally made Kankuro into apologizing to Gaara and assuring the kid that went hysteric for all days long after that his older brother didn't love him that he actually didn't mean it he couldn't look himself into the mirror for another month. His middle kid also didn't forget that he used fists for that as words and threats just didn't work and kept his distance for another couple of weeks, only until the moment he actually broke and screamed out at him that the core of everything was that for once he wanted to matter too as he felt unloved and that he hated Gaara for taking away the position of loved youngest child from him.

Daichi was grateful it happened on Friday as he could take a day off work (he could still do that then) and spent it whole with only Kankuro to show him that he didn't forget about him as his child. But since then, he started hating everything that was yapping, meowing or quacking and had four legs or feathers. The next week also was spent in the similar manner. Nothing much happened, only his work didn't subside when it was about amount, but that's how it was before Christmas. Thankfully, neither his boss or his so called office colleagues wanted anything more from him so he could still wind around the right time and get back his kids from Mr. Uzumaki.

As it came, it seemed that the man didn't mind taking care of all of them after their school and it was really godsend and instead of wasting fuel, he could drive straight into one destination and pack all his little lucks into one car and drive away. As it came, the man seemed to have bad habit of making too much food as even when he wanted to sneak out by just grasping the children and getting out, the plate with something warm was already awaiting him. And even if it was embarrassing, he couldn't protest when both the man and his stomach insisted – not to mention that even if Temari and Kankuro tried to play along his lines, Gaara always found it was a good time to ask for a plate of food when he was offered it.

So in the end it was a good week. And as all good things, it passed just as quickly. The next one started just in the same pattern. He managed to get up quite early and take the kids out of home not that last as usual, and even managed to drive Temari on time on her PE lesson. So he was generally satisfied with himself and when he entered the office, he even started greeting his co-workers. Only after the third time when nobody answered him, he frowned. The atmosphere really seemed to be too tense and vaguely too strange for the normal day. Everyone seemed to be working as usual and the secretary at the entrance chatted on the phone as always, preoccupied with her nails.

But the further he went into the building, the more silence he met and when he finally got into his office, he could swear he could slice the air with a knife. But before he had the chance to even sit down and ponder about it, the door to his office opened and the pale face flashed through them.

'In my office, in five minutes.' it seethed and immediately closed the door. Daichi blinked and looked down at his own desk. What the heck was going on? Did he mess up the tabs? Did he ruin something by his coming late at last? Oh for god's sake, he was not going to get fired now, right? So, after brushing the invisible dust from his briefcase and readjusting his tie once again, he went out and knocked to Orochimaru's door.

'In!' growled at him from the inside in a harsh, low tone. When he entered the man was preoccupied with noting something and talking over the black stylish stationary phone. 'Yes. Yes. Five thousands of dollars. Yes.' He said as he pointed at the chair in front of him. Daichi swallowed the saliva that seemed to get more and more sticky in his mouth and obediently sat down. The Sound company was a big business and the office he was in was of much higher standards than his. The big terrarium with albino snake was especially intimidating. 'Yes. Of course we will pay… of course. We're waiting for the call. Thank you. Mr. Sabaku.'

He twitched and turned around, seeing that the man had his eyes on him this time, much more unwelcoming and cold than when he was talking over the phone. But even then he leaned forward with both hands entwined tightly. Daichi instinctively prepared for a blow, but it didn't come. Instead, on the black ebony surface showed up the neat calling card with nothing else but a logo of familiar fashion. He felt unpleasant feeling traveling across his back as the cold sweat broke out on his forehead. What was it…

'Mr. Sabaku.' started the man once again with the same unpleasant tone 'May I know what have you been doing when you were not working here?'

Daichi blinked, not understanding. Orochimaru sighed and pushed the card toward him while he leaned back on the chair, tapping both of his hands' fingers together lightly. 'There was FBI asking for you on Friday's evening. You went gods know where even earlier than usual, so I couldn't contact you about that.' he said 'And of course, your telephone is out of order. I wonder when you're going to repair it.'

Daichi had almost the scathing answer on the end of his tongue, but it rolled off in silence and vanished into the thin air as the meaning of the sentence hit him on. FBI? There was FBI looking for him? But… but he didn't do anything… The initials on the card stood out boldly, stinging and unreceptive. Y.. Which translated easily to 'Yasha the Puppet Master'.

Yashamaru never used the full name or his surname in work. He felt his cold sweat breaking into a freezing chill that bit on his fingers, stilling them shut.

'Well? Why is the FBI looking for you, Mr. Sabaku?' asked the Orochimaru with unpleasant tone 'It doesn't have to do with anything between us, does it?'

He looked up quickly, not really gaining the eye contact as he looked down at the card again. The boss looked like if he was ready to go for his throat, and knowing him, he was capable of doing that. He never doubted that the smell of blood lingering on the walls didn't come only from rats and chickens that were fed to the white reptiles.

'I… don't know.' he said finally, cracking his voice out from the depths of himself, noticing that whatever canyon he had in his throat it seemed much bigger than he thought 'I didn't… talk with anyone about… our matters. I didn't do anything.' The silence that answered along with the frown was heavier than a block of ice and just as cold. He felt that if there would be any colder in here, his eyes would freeze over.

'All right.' said the man finally after the very long pause 'Then get back to work.'

He looked up, but as the man didn't show any intentions of getting the card up, he took it with himself and quickly scurried out of the office. Once he entered it, the first thing he did was getting to the business phone. But Yashamaru's cell didn't answer. After not getting even the voice mail, he ended the call and stared out at the ceiling. He felt like the fox that had been circled by hounds and whose leeway was becoming tighter and tighter with every passing second.

'I know where to find you. All of you.' said the card, laughing at his face with silent titter. After all he did to hide his identity and place of living. He closed his eyes. Hopefully, he would be able to move out by the end of the week. Only after that thought he sat down and started filling out his usual tabs, but everything fell out of his hands.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Blue eyes followed the car as it parked on the lot next to their building, scanning lightly over the model, calmed now. It had been a while since he had had reasons for it, but he hadn't ever completely shaken off the custom to check for car model and number. He didn't need to have his glasses to make out the actual name, it was a washed off white Geo Metro that had defiantly seen better days, with some faded marks of rust on the back bumper and a few scratched on the kid's seat. Minato couldn't really attests much about the quality of the car- he had never owned a car, didn't particularly care for them and to him a Mercedes was as interesting a two year old Fiat, so he didn't really stop to think much about the actual quality of the thing, so long as it ran and had all seatbelts on it - considering it was Sabaku's car.

Basic norms of kids safety and all that, though all he could rally say on regards of it was that at least he had never seen Sabaku let the kids ride up front, instead making the three of them go in the backseat. He personally agreed with that. He saw the man exit the car, leaning down to say something to the kids- he took another blow of his cigarette, leaning on the veranda. Sabaku talked with backseat passengers, backseat passenger(s) replied, Sabaku said something again, shoulders tensing, his whole back rigid- it was amazing how much easier to pay attention to body language it was when you didn't have audio to go with the picture- then waited for some answer. He wasn't sure he got one, as he didn't speak again, just stared at the car for another moment, before closing the doors and walking up to the stairs.

Minato made a face, taking a deeper-than-usual drag to quall the slight wave of uneasiness that wanted to make itself present. Over the past couple weeks he had begun to- well, not exactly grown used to the man's varying moods, more like gotten a little less weary about having the older man around. He still seemed to be able to accidentally step on an absurd amount of landmines whenever he actually made attempts at conversation, but Sabaku apparently only had two available moods, which seemed to be tired and angry. Neither of those were exactly exclusive, either, but he had noticed that when the man got angry, more often than not his bad temper deflated itself into a sort of resigned sort of defeat that was actually worse than when he started wondering if the older man would dive for his throat. And he had to admit that the man did an effort to be somewhat pleasant. Sometimes.

It wasn't like conversation between them was particularly deep, usually concerning neutral matters like how kids had behaved, purely polite inquires on regards of the man's day at work ('fine-yes-thank-you'), occasionally a mention of Minato's newest cut or broken mug (apparently the fact that the expectation of life of the mugs owned by the blond being anywhere between two weeks to four days was amusing for both kids and considering he had asked at all, possibly the father). The last Saturday there had been a weird moment when Minato's 80's MP3 List had picked up a song that Sabaku had recognized, and it somehow had degenerated into enthusiastic chatter because Sabaku had actually gone to the recital while in high school. By the time he realized the three older kids were peeking at the door as if they had been abducted and replaced by body snatchers, he became uncomfortably aware that those four and a half minutes had been the first real conversation he had had with Sabaku since he had met him.

As it usually happened in such situations, the two instantly lost the ability to continue with the same ease from before and the man had left in a hurry afterwards, leaving the blond wondering if maybe he could actually try and have a normal relationship with another non- ire country dialect –speaking adult (barring his psychoanalyst, who got paid for such a task). He didn't really dare rise his hopes much. Speaking of sinking hope- he turned to the stairs direction when he heard the man's steps on them, quickly extinguishing what was left of his cigarette and dumping it on a stray flowerpot –filters were supposed to be good for plants? Or maybe terrible, he couldn't remember – and fixed a slight smile. It didn't last long when Sabaku was finally close enough for him to actually be able to make out his face. He got fired, that's the first thing that crossed his mind, but as the lamp hanging outside his door shed more light on the man's face, Minato started having second thoughts on it.

'Hi…'

'Good afternoon.' said the man in a ghastly tone and without much sparing a glance at the blond he moved a bit on his toes to look past Minato's shoulder. He didn't unzip his own coat or even take out his bare hands from the pockets. 'Is Gaara ready? I need to go.'

'He's… he's playing with Naruto,' The kids had seemed to tire themselves after dinner and retreated to the blond's room to play with some coloring books, which was the reason Minato had decided to risk a small smoke break. The man's shoulders didn't seem any less tense than what they had been a moment ago. '…did something happen?'

The redhead finally turned his attention at him. The blond smelled of smoke and looked like someone who had just came out of a French restaurant after having a good canard l'orange with a glass of Bordeaux. It was a good, safe image of a hero of the movie (minus the hair that didn't seem to be made like on movies) but he felt like if this time he didn't belong to that world of art.

'Ah… gods…' he muttered through teeth as he moved one of his hands to massage base of his neck and crack it around a little. He felt more than uncomfortable, especially as his muscles didn't want to relax. He darted his eyes around, not seeing Gaara still. Didn't the redhead hear he came? 'Nothing much… I really need to go.'

The blond looked at him uneasily, caught between wanting to dart for the redhead before the man had a chance to go from passive-aggressive to aggressive-aggressive and ask again what had happened. The noise the man's' joints made when he cracked his head made him wonder for a moment if he hadn't actually broken it. It was enough to make him decide to dip into his last reserves for bravery for what was left of the year.

'Listen, I know it's Monday, but… don't you want to come in for a bit? I could do something quick for Temari and Kankuro and we could talk… If you want to.' by the time he finished the sentence his voice was a mumble, but at least the first part had been clear enough. Daichi didn't seem to be convinced, but he also was not unwelcoming to the idea. He rose his chin a bit, pointing at behind himself.

'I left the kids in the car.' he said, like if he was trying out at playing with cards that didn't give him much stableness in the card game. 'I'm in a hurry. We need to pack.'

'You can get them.' the blond said, relieved by the fact the man hadn't immediately decided to accuse him of kidnapping at his attempt to get him to stay or anything like that. 'You can bring-…' he blinked, replaying what the older man had said for a moment, before asking hesitantly.

'You're…you're moving? Do you need to go somewhere?' Had something happened to the man's apartment? Fire? Theft? Flood? …the plague?

'Business trip.' said the man with blank face, then made a step forward, trying to actually force himself inside. But on the second thought he turned around and slumped his arms. '…I'll go for the kids.'

Minato pitied the man a little for needing to take three little kids into a business trip- then realized how strange that was. Would the man's boss be really okay with three little kids tagging along? He wasn't sure if they'd be taking a private jet, but Naruto was old enough to need a ticket plane, so that meant paying three extras, and if it was on first class- But of course, the man didn't really have anyone to leave the kids with. No one except uncle-bar-mommy.

He was surprised the man actually agreed so quickly, but didn't miss the chance and disappeared into his department, stalling only long enough to warn the kids that the rest of the usual party would be back any moment and looking around in the refrigerator until he found some leftover rice that he almost immediately dropped into a pan to get something that would keep the kids entertained while he dealt with the father...

…who probably hadn't had anything to eat either, given the hour. Opening the fridge, he took a few more eggs out.

After a few minutes the doorbell rang again, pretty much signaling that the redhead managed to get his kids faster than to leave them. This time Gaara didn't waste any time and ran to the door, and before any of the blonds knew anything it was open enough for him to latch on Daichi's leg and cuddle hard enough to make it impossible for him to walk any further.

'Now you appear.' said the man with a hint of sarcasm, but he patted the kid on the head and let it cuddle him for a moment before he finally tore his leg from the grasp and closed the door behind them .

'Hi.' said Temari to Naruto as Kankuro was busy undoing his own coat.

'Hey.' he picked the girls coat when it nearly fell off the couch, pulling both it and Kankuro's at a further distance from the edge and walking back to the kitchen before the food had a chance to burn. Naruto was string at the rest from the aisle, apparently not in a very social mood because he didn't try to get any closer. He gave the rest of the party a mostly uninterested look before giving them a vague wave.

'_Cześć_.' as Gaara seemed intent on following his daddy like a puppy, Naruto pouted slightly. Gaara's dad never really wanted him around, so he didn't know why the redhead bothered at all

'Gaara…' he drawled, rocking lightly back and forth on the balls of his feet '_Pospiesz się_!'

The redhead only looked back and blinked.

'_Zaraz_.' he said and clung back on his dad's leg even tighter, emitting pitched up sounds to be noticed. And indeed he succeeded, only not in a way he thought he did. Daichi looked down at him and frowned.

'What did you say?' he asked, confused. 'I said 'right away'.' The boys said and rose up his hands, expecting to be hugged. When the man didn't do anything to give the hug, he leaned on the leg unhappily 'Naruto talks like that.'

'I see.' said the man and finally bowed down, stroking his head a bit, which was a pleasant gesture, as the redhead smiled, still clinging to him. Daichi smiled a bit, tiredly.

'Why don't you go play a bit more. I will sit in the kitchen with Mr. Uzumaki a bit.' Gaara looked up at him, still clinging, but as the stroking stopped he smiled, looking a bit disappointed.

'Okay.' He said finally and turned around to the blonde. The older kids looked at him with anticipating stares, and it looked so funny that for once he was on the lead and not his older siblings, that after letting go of his daddy the first thing he did he leapt for Kankuro's arm, and poked it, immediately turning back and running away.

'_Berek_!' he squealed. 'Be… what?' asked Kankuro confused. Temari looked back at him and only shrugged her arms. She wasn't in this house long enough to get the strange words that from time were passed between the two blondes.

'You are 'it'!' the younger blond explained, quickly pushing himself away from the wall and ready to dive for a hiding spot.

'Not now Naru, let them eat.' Minato had already filled up two plates with some rice omelets and was leaving them on the bigger table in the living room, having already left the cutlery and glasses there. The blonde pouted, eyes squinting.

'But daaaa~' it seemed like if the little blond had commendable control of his lungs, because his father had enough time to bring back juice for the kids and napkins before he added the final 'ddy'.

When he finished, Minato just ruffled his head.

'You can stay while they eat, but don't bother them.' The little blond obviously disagreed, but didn't fight anymore, and Minato left the door slightly upturned so they'd have a bit of privacy, then went to refill his kettle and put it on the fire to make himself some tea. That made kids more than happy. As much as Kankuro liked running around, he didn't really sleep last night as he had a big (biggest, the worst of the whole life! As Kiba told him as his sister told him and when Hana said something then it had to be it because she was older but not exactly and adult so she was trustworthy) exam from geography, and while he was not bad at geography he was not good at it either, so he spent first half of night trying to learn and the second one trying to sleep (and failing at both).

Only later it all came out that the big test wasn't really that big and that he didn't need to study the whole book and it was all Hana's joke on her gullible brother who could be easily tricked when it came to stress. So all in all, he passed it well but he was tired and rather grumpy and he actually wanted to eat something (quietly, because it was embarrassing to want to eat). Temari didn't have it that hard, but she had two PE lessons at the morning and she was not keen on running around too so she was grateful when she could finally drink more than just a gulp of water that was offered to her by pineapple head.

The older redhead had only kept starring at the omelet, feeling how a big pack of ice grew in his stomach even if he could feel how empty it was. But once the blond entered the kitchen he quickly latched onto the place and started eating, filling his insides with pleasure. The taste was good and he liked it, but it felt like if his throat just curled up and he couldn't really swallow what he was chewing. But just to keep himself occupied he added one more spoon of food inside his mouth.

Minato waited several moments for the older man to speak, busying himself with the process of finding a teabag, opening it, refilling the sugar, but as the man just ate silently, it became obvious he would have to ask.

'So, this moving…'


	21. 21: Boxes

Minato waited several moments for the older man to speak, busying himself with the process of finding a teabag, opening it, refilling the sugar, but as the man just ate silently, it became obvious he would have to ask.

'So, this moving…'

'Yeah. Business trip.' said the redhead around the mouthful, if possible bending even more over the plate. 'Trading of places and so on.'

Minato felt his insides twisting.

'So it's... a permanent thing...?' It had to be for couple weeks, there was no way anyone would ask a man to rearrange where he lived with his whole family from one day to the next. Billionaire enterprise or not. It couldn't be, he didn't even want to think what losing Gaara now would do to Naruto.

'Yeah.' said the man with the same tone, darting his eyes from his position toward the man for a millisecond. 'It will be probably another town if not state. I don't know yet. The company is having troubles now, so everything is a mess.' And if there was some lie told here, it surely wasn't the last sentence – Sound company was still at tight, which still came out bad in his salary. He was not sure how he would deal with losing this job either, though probably money from dismissal would last for a few days. Besides, he didn't really lie so far. Excluding that trip of course.

'Oh.' the blond said softly, slowly leaning back until his back hit the chair, seeming to carefully adjust on the furniture as if he didn't really trust it to hold his weight, his eyes set firmly on his teacup. The redhead took another spoon of rice into his mouth, feeling how guilty started to nibble at him. He really didn't want to leave right now like that. Gaara had finally adjusted to the kindergarten without bursting into tears every time he had to leave him alone, Kankuro found a class with a friend who had dog and wasn't afraid to give it to him to play and Temari's classes were actually taking care of her famine part of duties which he really didn't have idea about how to teach girls like that (and for the most of the time it was her teaching him or finding his mistakes once she started learning them anyway).

Not to mention that even he did found someone to whom he could talk to, even if it was a pure accident and if that 'talk' still was more about monosyllables and weather than hanging out. He also didn't want to leave and also wondered what kind of harm would the lack of food and good friend would do to all of his three kids, in which Gaara seemed to be the most fragile, and, unluckily – the most vulnerable when it came to tearing the bonds with the Uzumaki family. He felt his throat tightening even more as all the food weighted down in his stomach heavily.

But he couldn't tell them, or else Yashamaru would find them. He was sure that even if the man swore to hide it in the deepest depth of his mind that he was running away in the dark from him, at one point of a gun toward Naruto he would tell it out like at confessional. He couldn't risk it.

'I'll send a postcard.' he lied, though he very well knew he couldn't. But he really wanted to believe he could.

Postcard. Not even I the same city, Gods… Minato eyed the line phone resting on top of the fridge with something that could only be considered panic his first impulse being to call Sarutobi-sensei in a panic and ask him what the hell he could do because he couldn't tell Naruto that his best friend, the first person he had grown to attack himself seriously since arriving to this continent was going so far away he might as well no see him again.

Winter zonetime. It was five hours aged, which made it right now first AM. He rose his cup to his lips and took a gulp, yet strangely didn't seem able to wet his suddenly dry throat at all.

'That's… it's sudden.' the blond said, solely out of saying something. How could this have happened? No one had told him anything, there had been no hints, Gaara hadn't so much as mentioned- 'Do the kids know?"

The redhead finally rose his eyes up, his chewing rate slowing down.

'No.' he murmured with a frown 'I was planning on telling them later.'

Minato didn't envy him that. It had been hard enough to let Naruto know they'd be leaving their home, and he had been only three then. It was hard to realize he had already spent over half a year living in this place without having a breakdown or going mad. Till now a little sadistic spot of his mind provided, the blonde taking another sip of the hot liquid, this time in hopes it scalded it alive.

'It's really sudden.' And the award for intelligent commentary of the year goes to Namikaze Minato. He would have started laughing if he hadn't felt so miserable.

'Yes.' answered Daichi pathetically, knowing that he was also not winning Pulitzer with this. However he knew that if he started getting into details, he could also get his lie more complicated and thus, harder to maintain. He looked down at his plate 'I think so too. That's why I'm in hurry, so little time and so much to do…'

He blinked and once again moved his hand over his neck as he really felt uneasy and still too tense.

'Don't you have spare boxes for things? I don't know if I will be able to get them from market at such time. I will pay you.'

For a moment, Minato felt like lying and saying he didn't. Not because he cared for the boxes- he didn't have any sort of particular lingering attachment to cardboard, but if the man didn't have them, then he wouldn't be able to run away immediately because he'd have to go and actually buy the things. And then he wondered why his shrink had called him childish.

'Yes. I have some left from when we moved.' he pushed the barely touched tea a little further in the table and got up, reaching somewhere over the fridge and feeling around until he found the keys he needed, recognizing the keying because it was one of the basic ones shaped to pop open bottles.

'They are probably full of dust, though, I hope you don't mind…' Opening the door, he followed the same hallway that lead to Naruto's room and his own, past the laundry room, and finally to the door at the end of the aisle, using the key to unlock it. He knew he had one or two empty because that's where he had kept the winter clothing and with the summer one being considerable thinner, it hadn't taken up nearly enough space. He also knew he had a bad with another three or four still in their flat forms, but he wasn't sure as to exactly where…

He hadn't so much as opened the door and reached in to switch on the fluorescents when he realized that on the slight coat of dust of the floor there were suspicious sets of footprints that he had the feeling didn't belong to him. He certainly hadn't worn shoes sized 5 in over twenty years.

'Naruto!'

'What?'

'Did you get in the last room without asking?' There was a long, drawn set of silence from the living, followed by dubious and not really very convincing 'No….'

The older blond rolled his eyes, thinking he should be thankfully that Naruto really hadn't learnt to lie accurately yet, but that didn't mean he liked the idea of Naruto in this room alone much. Not that there was anything dangerous, just stuff that the blonde might mess up or take if given the chance, but Naruto had the uncanny ability to destroy a room if given the chance to. At simple sight nothing seemed out of place.

The 'last' room, as the blond had called it, was a normal room of dimensions somewhere between Minato's room and the one the little blond slept in, only it looked considerably larger solely by the lack of furniture. There was a couch pushed against the wall, covered with some fabric to keep it from accumulating dust, a coffee table that clearly didn't belong with the rest of furniture the blonde kept in the house (it looked far too unused and it was a different type of wood) and a square, rather unlikable armoire wedged in what little space was left of that wall. Other than that, the rest of the room was empty save by the couple boxes strewn across the floor and a few dusty books strewn across the coffee table.

There wasn't nearly enough dust to clearly make out where had Naruto been going, but he was willing to bet it had involved jumping on the couch, where he could have fallen on the table and broken his little neck- yeah, he was going to change locks again. Probably start hanging the keys around his own neck.

'Careful.' he told the older man as he started moving the boxes around to see where he could have left the unused ones. 'It's kind of dirty.'

The man didn't answer, as the batch of boxes already got tripped accidentally by him and he had to catch them to maintain their balance. Something clunked from the inside of it, but it didn't seem to get broken. His hands, however, and also partially his sweater were now covered in light gray dust.

'Sorry.' he mumbled, looking around. He had never been there before, so he was a bit curious about what's hiding inside the rooms, but so far it only seemed to be a normal storage room, without any unlikely bodies hiding in the closets. He bended down to make some dusty shoe stand up the way how it should, as it seemed to be tripped out of order and spotted a dusty boxes covered in stickers from Chiquita bananas.

'Aren't they those?' he said, pointing at the founding, that piled up in the corner. 'They seem empty to me.'

The blond had stopped, looking down at a box marked as 'Kushina' with a distracted expression. Back when he'd started therapy Sarutobi-sense had told him that it would be better to get rid of most things that had been Kushina's to help him process her passing better or something like that, he had said. Minato had listened and gotten rid of almost everything, though he hadn't really found it very relieving and it certainly hadn't helped make the weird feeling that his wife had gone and was never coming back when he constantly felt like if just yesterday she was red-haired tornado constantly turning the house upside down. So yes, he had done as his shrink had instructed, but he hadn't really managed to get himself to give her clothes away.

It wasn't really any sort of particular attachment – without Kushina to fill them, they really didn't feel like anything special, but the matter was that Minato had always liked how she dressed. Kushina favored bright, somewhat gaudy clothes with weird patterns – the sort of thing Minato would have never in his life dared to wear and while he did want to give it away so someone else might use it, he didn't really like the idea of someone he didn't know using it. He didn't know if it was selfish or possessive or plain silly (he hadn't actually confessed to Sarutobi having kept such things, feeling a little too embarrassed to do so) but while he didn't mind the clothes getting used, he didn't want to give them away and not knowing where they were. He wanted to give it to people he'd know would like them.

In the end, he had let Anko go through Kushina's dresser and take everything she wanted, and before leaving he had let his neighbor, who had a daughter around Iruka's age take whatever else she could find. Even so, there were a few things left, and it suddenly occurred that some of the few things he had left might be good enough to actually fit Temari, if she didn't mind using them in dress-like fashion- "Hey, would you like…" he had only begun to ask when he turned and found the man looking at him in a way that confused him for a moment before realizing he had probably asked something. "…Sorry?"

'The boxes' repeated the man, pointing at the previous direction 'Are they empty?'

He followed the direction the man was pointing, taking a moment to actually focus on the boxes.

'Ah, yes... They should be, at least.' he looked back at the 'Kushina' box, debating on asking if the man would like to take a few of them, but quickly lost the drive to. He didn't think the man would be appreciative of the gesture . Either he'd think he was a feral for suggesting his daughter use such clothing, or he'd think he meant he didn't like what Temari wore or something like it.

'Okay.' muttered the redhead and moved away some part of other boxes, that stood on his way, only to bend down and gather the things in his arms, until the covered his whole torso and head standing one on another. 'How much for that much?' he asked, tilting his head a little so he could look out from the tower that covered his front view.

The blond blinked at the older man, immediately darting forward to take half of what he was carrying off his arms, clearing the immediate field of vision for the redhead.

'Oh, you can just take them. I won't need those anytime soon.'

The man frowned at the answer, but he slowly turned toward the exit anyway. He was a little surprised by the help, but didn't protest against it. It was quicker that way anyway.

'Are you sure?' he asked hesitantly one more time. As far as he knew, even such things had price on this world. The blond just smiled, though it wasn't a very happy smile. Just thinking what use would those boxes be getting was enough to depress him.

'They're here accumulating dust."

The redhead blinked, then shrugged lightly, as much as his hands allowed him.

'All right.' he muttered as he proceeded to move out of the storage room. If that was fine with the blonde, he was not going to argue with him. He had less money than he could spend either way. Minato followed him, clearly intending to help him carry the boxes all the way through.

'You sure you have enough room for these in the car?"

'I will put them in the backseat and on the front one.' said the man as he stepped over some other box and finally got out of the room 'I take only as much as I can take within the car, if something won't get in the boxes, we will lea-' he bit himself on the tongue. Damn, he didn't think that much and almost let it slip '-let it be mailed to us later. It's a bit sudden so we're taking only the things we need the most at first.'

Minato stared at the man. He had noticed the slip, though he wasn't very sure what to make out of it- was the man really that pressured with work? Maybe it had been an ultimatum?

'I, uh, meant for the boxes and the kids."

The man turned his head toward the blonde, a bit surprised.

'They will be holding the lightest boxes on their knees.' he answered simply 'They can do that.'

'Ah...' the blond nodded. That couldn't be very comfortable, but considering he had shared a two room department with one bathroom with six other people, he didn't think he had much room to argue. Daichi looked at the blond for a minute longer, expecting or maybe waiting for him to say something more, but then he simply moved toward the entrance of the house. The man looked really down about that they would be moving out and it in itself felt… nice. Sad, but nice. It was a good feeling to know that somewhere, somehow, their existence would leave a void when removed.

'We really should be going now. Thanks for the meals, it was really good… Temari! Kankuro! Gaara! I hope you ate your food because we're going!' As on a command, the clinking of dropped spoons and forks could be heard and the kids showed up at the nearby's door.

'Get dressed.' was the simple order. And when the kids actually started getting dressed, he pointed at the blond. 'And when you're done, take a box, each one of you. We will be needing those.'

Temari had only blinked at that, but Kankuro's face fell.

'We're moving out again?...' he said in a vulnerable tone 'No, dad! No! You said that this time would be the last time!'

'It's not like if I have much choice left.' said the man as he moved his weight from one leg to another 'It's a greater good that demands it. We need to move out.'

'So, we're not running away this time?' said Temari as she zipped up her coat. Daichi smiled at her through tightly shut lips, feeling a sudden urge to rise his hand to threaten her silent. But alas, both of his hands were occupied so he couldn't have any of it.

'No, we're moving out because daddy's boss said that we have to.' Which, technically speaking, wasn't a lie. Orochimaru did cause the decision about moving out of their current place after all. It was a bit far stretched, but it wasn't a lie. 'So better start thinking about what you need to pack, because when we get home we will have to start doing it right away.'

'That's not fair… I don't wanna…' mumbled Kankuro as he wore one of his shoes 'And school? What about school? I have to get results from my geography's test!'

'You're not going to do it. You will also change schools.' said Daichi with tired tone, already feeling the headache coming. There it went again, as it did before. And the time before that. Minus Gaara, that was.

'What? Then I won't see Akamaru anymore?' shouted the boy, standing up, even if his shoes weren't properly laced yet 'And Kiba? No, dad! No!' Temari's head hung even lower now.

Daichi smiled even more tighter. Somehow, he felt that he should be concerned by the order his son mentioned his friends, but he didn't feel really compelled to tell him that people meant more than animals now. So instead, he had only breathed out heavily, readjusting the boxes in his arms.

'You will find new friends.' he said. He looked at his unhappy daughter 'You too, Temari.'

'I know.' said the girl apathetically, not stopping with doing her clothes 'It's the enemies that won't be the same there.'

Daichi frowned at that, but Temari only shrugged, not showing that she was keen on continuing the subject. What was that? Enemies? Was Temari bullied at school? But before he could open his mouth to ask, his third kid joined the conversation, by simply clutching on his leg with a force of nut crusher.

' Where are we going?' he asked, looking at all of them with wide eyes. Only now Daichi noticed how bewildered his looks became. 'Daddy!...'

Daichi sighed one more time.

'I don't know.' he muttered. 'Please, dress up, it's late.' And not to mention that the situation was becoming as uncomfortable as his arms started to hurt at the one position over the too large boxes. 'We have to go-'

'No… nooo!' squealed the little redhead as he hugged himself onto the man's leg, almost making him lose the balance 'Don't leave me! Daddy, don't leave me alooone!...' Daichi rose his eyebrows up in a surprise. Wha… no, what?

'Nobody is going to leave you.' he said, surprised as the green eyes managed to soak completely in tears already, his leg sharing the fate of them partially 'We're going together. All of us.'

The scrunched up face immediately smoothened, making Gaara look only more wet and flushed out of sudden.

'All of us?' he asked, not letting go of him still 'With Naruto? And his dad?' Daichi almost could feel how the eyes of his other kids rose up and shot into his back, waiting. That was becoming more absurd than he thought.

'No.' he said as he turned around to look at all of them at the same time 'We're not taking them with us. Only our family, which means me, Temari, Kankuro and you.'

'And mommy?' piped the kid immediately. Daichi felt how his teeth cracked a little as he clamped them tight.

'No. Without uncle Yashamaru.' he said in a voice that meant he didn't want any protests. In his state it came out rather weak than authoritative, but it still made the two older kids resume their dressing up (which they were ending on doing anyway), despite their moods. Gaara on the other hand, once again broke into the waterworks, clinging to him even more, if that was possible. He felt his balance tipping dangerously to the left.

'Then… then… then… how we're going to see mommy…' he started, hiccupping '…and Naruto… and his dad…'

'I don't know!' Daichi finally roared, losing the rest of his patience 'I don't even know if we will see them again at all! Shut up and get dressed!' That resulted only in Gaara breaking into the full cry right in front of him. It seemed that he had to drop the boxes after all and dress the kid by himself, because at such state, Gaara's will was close to none. 'Sorry about that.' he muttered, ashamed.

Minato also shifted under the boxes- they were empty, so they didn't weight much at all, but they also were big, and made carrying them difficult, so he didn't want to even think about the kids taking them down the stairs.

'Listen, I can ca-'

He didn't get much further, because Kankuro chose that moment to make the absolutely worst question in history of terrible questions to ask in front of Naruto. He should have known hoping no one would ask about the boxes was asking too much of the universe, but if he had really stopped to think about it, he would have been willing to climb down the window and risk being though of a thief and shot down than being there at the moment.

'_Ta….Tatusiu…_'

The older blond immediately stopped listening, instead turning to look at his son, who was looking at him with light blue eyes that suddenly looked entirely too big on his face, the vague traces scars on his cheeks seeming to stand out all the more because of it. The blond looked at him as if he expected an answer, back at the family discussing not five feet away from him, then again at him, and Minato felt his stomach start to twist uneasily in undoubtedly modern artistic shapes as he saw the way realization slowly washed over his son's face.

Minato had known from the moment the redhead had told him they were moving this wouldn't go smoothly, but he hadn't stopped yet to try and figure out what he was going to say to Naruto on regards of it. In some little, dark corner of his mind, Minato would have had to admit the only thing he could think of doing was pretending not to know what had happened until Naruto's kinder itself announced Gaara was gone, and do his best to console his son then. But until that, at least a week would have happened, Naruto would have had days to accustom himself to not seeing the redhead and it would hopefully (very, very hopefully) be enough to help him fare with it better… But now… Now with Gaara and the other kids here-

'_Lisku….' _

'_Dlaczego?_' the little blond asked thickly, his eyes becoming increasingly shiny, cheeks taking on a reddish hue as the tears slowly welled.

'Naru-' Suddenly the boxes didn't look so bulky. In fact, if he had some tape around, he'd consider crawling in one and taping the lid shut. Daichi looked up, looking even more puzzled and lost as he quickly stood up. It was obvious he was feeling very uncomfortable by the fact that Gaara was crying alone, and Naruto's expression only made him flush with even more embarrassment.

'We… we will be off. I'm sorry. That's life. We will call. See you. I mean, goodbye.' he rambled as he almost broke out one of his fingers until he remembered he was supposed to carry the boxes. Then he took the ones he dropped and looked at his older kids taking ones from him. When Gaara didn't do anything beside crying, he caught him by the hand and dragged him around.

'I. um. The boxes.' He said, pointing at Minato's hands. 'Can I…?'

At the sound of his voice, the older blond turned to look at him, his expression clearly oozing panic. At the loss of eye contact, Naruto bowed his head and drew his fist to his eyes, seeming nonstop stream of words in Fire country dialect streaming from his mouth. The redhead looked back at him, completely at loss. He was not understanding what was the little kid saying, though he had the faint idea that he did not like what was announced just now. What was the strangest that Mr. Uzumaki was not doing anything to console him and just stared at him with something akin to panic. One would think it was not his kids and that he had never calmed a kid before. Now that was awkward.

Daichi learned long time ago, that kids that weren't his were not his business and that asking people for doing something with them which they didn't do was like latching himself into the cave of angry madmen who didn't have the prey to beat on. And here, he didn't feel that he was on such friendly terms with the blonde he could tell something to his kid. Especially as Gaara, whom he held by the hand, now started to squeal, as he wanted to move out of the grasp and obviously hug Naruto. He couldn't let him do that, as he knew that drama that would follow with separating the both would take it to the whole new level. And at some point he would just start screaming at both of the kids, and that would be really a bad move toward someone to whom he owed so much.

'The boxes.' he repeated pleadingly, hoping that the man will snap out of it and will do something with the crying kid. 'Please?'

Apparently knowing himself heard wasn't strictly necessary to want to express his opinions, because Naruto kept talking in that funny language that seemed to consist entirely of too many z's, p's and d's while sobbing. Maybe he didn't do it as loud as Gaara had demonstrated to be, but by no means was it less enthusiastic. By now the tears were enough to actually roll all the way down to his chin and drop on the floor. It was probably his mind, but Minato would have sworn he heard every imaginary plic-plic they made on the linoleum.

'Ah… Y-yes…'

Daichi looked at him with stone hard gaze, then at the kid and finally, almost rudely, took the boxes by the force and moved away from them.

'Goodbye.' he said once again 'Wish you well.' he said, through the blood gurgling cry that Gaara emitted for 'goodbye' and opened the door, almost tripping as he had to drag the kid with one hand and hold the boxes by another. The other kids didn't really help, but he felt quite independent now. He waited as they went out and shot one last glance at the flat, feeling bad that the last memory he had from them was a crying little kid and a parent at loss and closed the door. Now it was only running away that was left. No biggie.

Minato flinched a bit as the boxes were forcefully removed, but it was purely a physical reaction, his mind had shut down to a unstoppable message relying that his son was once again miserable and there was nothing, absolutely nothing he could do that would make it stop or fix it. For once it hadn't been directly caused by him, but that didn't change one iota the fact that he couldn't fix it. It took him a while to slowly reach for his son, absently wiping dirty hands on his jeans to try and touch the shaking shoulders, but as soon as he brushed them, Naruto looked up at him, his expression absolutely miserable. It was only a second, but whatever Naruto saw on his father's face wasn't what he needed. He darted under Minato's arm.

The little blond ran for his room, sobs hitching up for a few seconds before becoming muffled again when he buried his face in his pillow and started openly wailing. Minato was left kneeling in a suddenly overly lit (overly lived on) living room, staring at the used plates, used napkins, the numerous fingerprints on the glass. Naruto would cry himself to sleep, that much was obvious. All he had left to do was wait for it to happen, then pick him up and maybe bring him to his own bed, where Naruto would sleep and Minato wouldn't.

Carefully, he leaned backwards until his back hit the edge of the sofa, his neck resting against the curved edge. He arched it slightly so he could rest his nape on the piece of furniture, aware of a complaining ache somewhere between shoulder and chin, and he carefully turned that section to try and relieve the feeling. It creaked, but nowhere nearly as loud as Sabaku's had.

#+#+#+#+#+#

The engine of black geo metro stopped before the known windows, always dark and unwelcoming. Daichi noticed the cough the engine provided when he finally parked his car under the street lamp. It was some time after he did the control examination of the thing, but he was sure that as far as all went, his car was the last thing that needed repairing, as it was the first thing he had under control when everything started falling apart.

He breathed out deeply and let himself rest for a moment on the wheel, even if one of his kids was crying out loud and making up for the lack of noises on the street, the other was developing another level of hate toward him and the third kept on looking down, searching for invisible breasts (or at least he hoped it would be that way in this moment, but bad jokes didn't lift his mood at all). The place reeked of dirt, crime and blood that was never properly scrapped of the walls and it was main reason why it was so cheap and available all the time. If only he had more opportunities, he wouldn't live at such place, not with kids where the nearest park was three kilometers apart and he lived door apart from a mafia member. If only. But now it didn't really matter in the end.

Nothing really did.

'Okay, get out.' he commanded in a tired tone, not even using much force. His kids listened to him, even if neither of them stopped what it was really doing. So much noise at such time at such place just begged for troubles, but it was a fear he was used to live with already.

'Grab the boxes and we're going.' he muttered. After a moment they were all arranged and ready. So it was going good so far, especially as no light has lit up in the dark windows, which could mean that they didn't tick the nerve of anyone yet. But when he was almost sure they would get home without a problem, the door nearby flashed bright and opened, revealing the face of a man who by no means, had to get a good teaching at places where no man would want to be.

'Hey, you! Redhead!' he yelled, pointing with rather muscular arm at him as he started going toward them. As Daichi noticed, he had a bottle of rather high class alcohol in the other one. It couldn't end good.

'What is it?' he asked, stopping obediently. He didn't want to make an impression that he was running away. He quickly calculated the possibilities. If he was alone, he could drop the boxes and run, but with three kids, it was out of question. So instead, he stood a bit more firmly, trying at least to not look scared. The children hid behind him.

'Yeah, I knew it was you! I recognized you from that kid's screeching!' said the man with a bit tipped voice, obviously ignoring the question, as he waved with the bottle toward Gaara. The kid hid himself behind the box, changing his crying into muffled pitiful sobs. 'Gotta adore that heavy hand of yours! My old man also liked to beat me up from time to time! I swear I did shut him up at last!' he laughed creakingly, making Daichi's hair stand out on its ends. He swallowed quietly and looked around nervously. Now, like on a command, the lights in the rooms started lighting up, one after another.

'What can I do for you, Mr. Takaoka? He asked with uneasiness. The man just couldn't stop laughing, it was obvious that he already drank more than he had to. He glanced back, making sure that nobody was walking him up behind. There wasn't. 'It's a bit late, so if there isn't anything…'

'Oh, but of course!' boomed the man suddenly, making the kids jump and startling Gaara so much he quieted for a moment 'There sure it is! But I wonder what it could be! Maybe you will remind me, cause I had so much to drink this evening…'

Daichi had stood quietly, already knowing what it was all about. But he let a few moments pass, watching the man basking in his own so-called wiskiness. Then he moved in place uneasily.

'If it's about rent, I already said I will pay-' he started, but the bottle that was suddenly waved right in front of his nose surprised him enough to bite his own tongue.

'Ah yeah!' roared the man as some curtain moved with the scraping sound and the window opened, revealing some dark male figure, smoking a cigarette. Daichi was sure it was not done only because smoke waved off nicely in the cold air. 'I remember now! The rent! You're already late three months! When I will be getting deh money, ah?'

Daichi grimaced lightly. Gods, he hated such situations.

'I already told you, that once I'm going to get paid in work…' he started, but the man once again cut him off.

'Yeah, I heard it for billions of times already! We're all short on the cash, food and stuff. But you never have the money, not for once! How am I supposed to trust you, Sabaku, huh? Tell me, how am I supposed to trust you?' Someone snickered up above. He looked down at the ground, counting sheep. Dark, red, rage ridden berserk sheep of abasement.

'I will pay up.' he repeated, feeling how his voice tensed up from emotion, even if he tried to keep it calm 'I already said I will.'

'I doubt that! Somehow I doubt that!' screeched the man, once again flailing his arms around 'Aren't you losing your cash off somewhere? Like casinos, some dirty misdeeds I shouldn't know about? Is your dad hitting the bottle too many times? I swear, I hate those drunkards fathers!' yelled the man, looking at the trio. Gaara seemed to become even more afraid of him now and the rest of the kids didn't look happy either, but no one dared to say anything, beside glaring unfriendly at him. They didn't like him. He always threatened them so much and dad was always in such a bad mood after.

The man didn't seem to mind the fact they were not answering his questions. Instead, he took the nice long swig of the liquid from the bottle and burped with the rum smelling air. Daichi stopped even trying to say anything. It seemed that the man didn't even care about what he said.

'I will pay.' he only muttered, and looked at the kids. When they looked back, he inclined on moving and passed around the man with quick steps.

'You're not planning on running away, eh?' yelled Takaoka, moving his arms around 'You'd better not be planning on sneaking out with those boxes you hold, Sabaku, you hear me? Eh?'

The sharp tug on the arm stopped the man from walking. Daichi grimaced inwardly at the sharp smell of alcohol that suddenly burst right into his face, when the other man grabbed him by the collar and looked him right in the face.

'I asked if you heard me!' he roared right into his face in a manner that made the kids behind him squeal with fear. He opened his eyes as he instinctively expected to be hit on the cheek.

'Yes. Very clearly.' he answered as calmly as he could. The face of the man got even closer, the smell got hard to bear. _Oh gods_, he thought, _I feel sick…_

'Good! Then hear me out more!' growled Takaoka, pointing the chin at him with a smile that was more canine like than friendly 'I want the payment for the last two months by the end of this week or there will be no more 'Mr. Nice Uncle TeeHee', clear?' Daichi closed his eyes. The man was too drunk, and yet, not drunk enough. 'Clear?' was roared upon him once again.

'Yes.' he muttered quietly. A moment later he was let go. What did it matter anyway. He was not even planning on staying to the end of this week. Or to pay those money actually.

'Great! That's great we understand each other so perfectly!' laughed the man again, patting him on a shoulder like a good friend, which was obviously more a show off of the strength that could provide that muscular arm. Because those pats almost hurt. 'I even decided to let go of the last month for awhile! You see how good I am? It's all about that I need the money, you see… that's how it is! No hard feelings here! Now go home and lull your kids to sleep like usual, good daddy!'

The croaking booming laughter was all that sounded after him when Takaoka left the place. Once the door closed, the lights in windows started to go off, one after another, like lamps on the Christmas tree. Daichi looked up. The curtains of the flat of grey smoking man were shut tight, along with the window frame. Probably a very winter-resistant mosquitoes got on his nerves.

'Let's go.' he finally said, moving inside the old, smelling with old cement and piss staircase. This evening they didn't manage to pack much of things. He just felt too tired with the way world got on his bones. The dreams he dreamed when he finally managed to put the kids down and wind around the redhead who seemed to be reluctant to be near him at all were grey, dull and didn't give any leisure. But that was the way life was for him.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato didn't sleep at all through the night. As predicted, Naruto had cried himself to sleep, and when he'd gone to get him, the little blond had wrapped his arms around his neck and hadn't let go. Minato didn't mind. Whenever Naruto did something to reject him, he seemed to fold on himself and be unable to do anything until he finally got through that his son hadn't *really* meant it. And oh, once it was over and the feeling was gone, he could think and act and do all those things he should have done when they had been actually needed, but it always worked like that- way after the damage was done. At least he hadn't had an episode himself this time.

Just thinking like that made him feel sick about himself -yeah, you didn't completely fail as parent this time, only about ¾, go you, father of the year- he didn't even want to try thinking about work. Or sleep. Just yesterday he had slept so well, how alien and far away it seemed now. He didn't manage to disentangle himself from his little ball of sunshine until it was time to get something done for breakfast, maybe even clean the mess left from yesterday if he was able to muster enough strength for it. He briefly thought about asking Naruto if he wanted to stay at home today, but the immediate surge of panic at the idea had him scurrying for the kitchen.

Have Naruto there all day after what had happened? Dealing with it was beyond Minato's abilities, as it had been so lovingly illustrated yesterday. It was better for Naruto to go somewhere among normal people who would actually be of some help and Minato- well, he'd do his best when Naruto came back from kinder. He wasn't sure what he felt when he realized that he had begun preparing enough food for both Naruto and Gaara, but it distinctly felt like when he'd caught a football thrown at full force with his stomach, barring the physical pain. It wasn't a very pretty feeling. It wasn't a very pretty situation, either.

Gaara was such a sweet kid, he didn't want to think about never seeing him again, but what could he do? It was hard situation for everyone involved, and he felt a little sick at thinking that if he was this stressed with just Naruto, he didn't want to be in Sabaku's shoes with three unhappy kids plus the details of moving to go through. It was this last thought that had him reach for his cell phone, tiredly beeping through the list of numbers until he found the redhead's. He hesitated a moment or two, looking at the clock- a little too early, barely twenty minutes till eight in the morning. He really should hurry and get Naruto up and dressed.

Instead, he pressed a few numbers in quick succession, looking unhappily at the screen. Good luck. Yeah. He hoped he had it. He hoped all of them did, because it was obvious they weren't very happy here. He couldn't help feeling a bit guilty, as if he could have somehow prevented this from happening somehow, but as his new shrink had so tactfully put it in their last session, Minato wasn't the center of the world. This would have happened weather he had been there or not, which didn't make the fact it was happening at all suck any less.

He thought about it for a moment, then erased the period at the end- when it came to im'ing, it always felt like if whoever bothered to write periods at the end of short sentences was mad with the person receiving it- . Now the sentence seemed a little senseless. He thought about adding a smiley face at the end. He felt more or less around Naruto's age just from thinking about it. But what could he do? He couldn't just end it like that. It's not that it was bad, it just seemed a litte-

'_Ta_…Daddy…?' He startled, accidentally pressing some button and turning around.

A very sleepy blond peered at him from the door, one little fist rubbing at his eye, and Minato winced. An unfortunate side effect to having Kushina's eyes was that when he had cried a lot, it showed. The blond's eyes looked red and puffy, not that having inherited his father's eyes would have helped any. Nature wasn't very kind to those lacking in melanin.

'_Lisku…' _he made an automatic gesture with his arms, and before he could think of withdrawing it, Naruto padded to him and climbed to his lap, settling on him heavily. The mass of knots that had been his chest since last night loosened a little bit as soon as Naruto nuzzled into his neck. He looked at his cello, wincing when the screen happily announced that the message had been successfully sent, but internally shrugged. What was Sabaku going to do? Drive back a thousand kilometers to threaten him with a baseball bat on regards of instant messaging etiquette or how he shouldn't try to contact him before office hours?

'…Daddy?'

'Hm…?' The older blond tensed, fearing a similar reaction to yesterday. Naruto had just kept asking why was Gaara going away, and where and why and why again. Asking if it was because Gaara's dad didn't like him- Why hadn't he been able to say anything to him last night? He should have just hugged him and told him it wasn't so. It never occurred to Minato that Naruto was thinking that if someone as important as Gaara could leave, then maybe his father also could. It wouldn't surprise him either- they had ran away from home because the 811 lady had made his daddy afraid, and Naruto knew he often caused the same reaction on the older blond. Maybe his daddy's new shrink would tell him it would be better to get away from him so he could finally be happy.

Warm, slightly chubby arms wrapped around his neck as Naruto draped himself on him like a baby koala, his legs going around his midsection.

'…_dzień dobry_.' Minato sighed, feeling guilty relief crept up on him. He drew the little blonde closer, tucking his head under his chin and rocking him a little.

'_Dzień dobry, Liseczku_.'

#+#+#+#+#+#

All the worry about the message that was sent was baseless – Daichi managed to get a hard, long sleep that night, but once he opened his eyes at four a.m., he couldn't close them back at all. And gods damn, he tried.

But even if he counted every possible sheep in every possible way, it seemed that the joke was on him at every rate, especially as the kid that kept getting away from his hands was now tucked to his chest like a little bird, and slept just as soundly. It felt somehow relieving to see that, but at the same time he felt a little envious. The outside still looked like a deep black night with only tint of grey that was nowhere near the sunrise - but even that woke him up. After an internal struggle of long fifteen minutes Daichi finally decided to stop playing the game of tag with himself and he (carefully, very carefully, to not touch his youngest in any harsh way) got up.

After that, everything went like a routine. Washing up, shaving, warming up the kettle for tea, wearing clothes, eating something dry and rather quick that tasted like a piece of wood soaked with old fat and so on. When his stomach was finally filled with hot liquid that smelt and looked like tea and tasted like water it was five past five a.m., and that meant two things. First: he did everything in the tempo of a turtle, which was refreshing to his everyday rush. And second: he had nothing else to do before he would have to wake up the kids.

So, to not waste time, he decided to go and pack up for moving out. Not that he had much, but the time was priceless now, and the quicker they were ready, the better it was for them. He doubted that Yashamaru expected him to be so drastic, but since he knew that with his brother-in-law everything went down the drain in the proper time given, he would like to be further away from him, than closer when he would finally catch on that something wasn't right.

After removing a pair of ties from his closet and tossing them carelessly into the only half filled box he sat down and started taking out the socks from the shelf. After that went books from the lowest part of the bookcase (to another box) and half of the shelf of the books that stood a bit higher. Then he bumped his knee on the 'Piper of Hamelin' and all papers securely stored behind it fell onto the floor in paper-like rain. It would be very artistic, given that all front ones were stained old smeary brown drops of Gaara's blood.

Terrific. He actually didn't have time (or rather, didn't even try to find it) to sort it all out – he was supposed to send the request for the proper attorney. Now, with all copies looking like a fair proof from the place of crime, he was rather tempted to toss them out. But then, he knew he wouldn't really know what to copy when the right time would come. And now wasn't the time. With a sigh, he cleared the papers and put in the box, right below the 'Crime and Punishment' and above the 'Piano Tabs for maniacs'. Gods only knew what he kept on dragging with himself with all those housings. Then he looked at the floor.

Nope, it was already stained with hemoglobin so much, that even if he tried to pour tears on it, it wouldn't vanish. It didn't matter anyway. Such 'ink splotches' happened around the place all the time. With another add of his better pair of shoes and the pack of suits, he stood up and went to put away the boxes that were already filled.

As far as he knew, it was easier for him and the kids to take them to the car when they stood near the entrance, even if once he had almost smashed his face on the wall when he tripped on them. It went nice with remaining ones; Temari did it just right – packed her clothes, books and bathroom tools, leaving the things she wouldn't need in the end (though Daichi was sure she would try to store them in her schoolbag later) but Kankuro's box, who seemed to be angry enough to just throw everything at once at the extra speed seemed to be just a disaster.

With a sigh, Daichi emptied the thing and refilled it again, this time actually adding the underwear and leaving out the old football that wasn't even used by him, as neither of his friends actually took interest in it. He decided, that if he would find some remaining place in his own boxes he would take it, but if that wouldn't happen, he would just leave it off. Kankuro probably wouldn't even remember about it later.

He took the things and stored near the door also. Then he went back to look up his youngest son's things. This one seemed to be only half filled and most of the stuff was rather emotionally ridden than of any practical use. That meant drawings, some broken crayons, jacket from Mr. Uzumaki that had to be given back anyway ad of course and the dirty teddy that didn't seem to be so dirty now, but not clean much too (which he was sure that Gaara would take in his hands anyway, so there was no need to let it take the free space).

With a sigh, he removed the toy from the box and went to the closet to take out the clothes and actual meaningful remnants that could mean nothing now, but later would be insufficient. When he had ended packing them up to the redhead's box, the clock ringed out the alert standard alert. He looked up. It was actually nearing the seven a.m. now. See, the time actually passed quickly when he was having a good time.

With a little crack in his heck he got up, folded the drawings into the side of the box and lifted it up, ready to take it to the hall. The jacket and the teddy were left in the room as things that would be taken by hands.

'Temari, Kankuro, get up.' he said as he passed by their room. The unhappy grumbles and moves could be heard in response. 'Get up, it's seven a.m. already.'

'Right.' answered the nasal voice of Kankuro who was most likely hiding himself under the cover to fall asleep shortly. He looked back, but didn't do anything – Temari was already up and he knew better than to actually interrupt her 'sister duties' as she called them from time to time (and which included waking up her younger brother). Instead, his attention was caught by the broken TV. It wasn't theirs, so it was not a loss, but he wondered about the other receiver, which was the radio. It was not a big things and he could probably ease it in the shelf in his car, but as with all things considered, it was always the way that you took more than you brought.

He entered the bathroom and took off the towels, leaving only his own.

'I'm packing those, use mine… are you up?'

'Yeah-ah.' answered almost in unison from another room. Daichi nodded to that inwardly. Temari did her job well. And just when he ended up dragging Gaara's box into the hall, the redhead owner of it crept behind him, looking at his hands nervously.

'Teddy? He chirped, clutching at his leg for support 'Where's the teddy?'

'In your room, guarding the jacket.' he murmured as he left off the thing on the floor. 'You can bring them-.'

The two feet already paddled away from him and when he turned around, Gaara was high on his speed getting back with teddy in his arms. The jacket, of course, was not interesting enough to take care of it.

'…here.' he ended the sentenced rather hopelessly and quietly proceeded to get it on his own. It was too early to start the quarrel over the simple things. 'Sit down, I will prepare breakfast shortly.' Which was a farfetched lie, but hey, he tried to act as little pathologically as he could in the situation given, all right? When he finally managed to make the tea and some kind of scrambled eggs (sadly, from a whole part of twelve eggs he bought only three were not rotten. And he was not sadistic or stupid enough to feed anyone with something smelling that bad) with tomatoes, Temari and Kankuro showed up, already washed up and dressed, with rather unhappy faces. Kankuro was holding the cell phone he's got from his friend and seemed to be preoccupied with some kind of cell phone video game.

'Put that thing down. It's eating time.' he said, when he got the last plate to the table and sat down.

'A-huh.' said Kankuro, showing he heard him, and resumed in playing. Daichi waited for a second, but when nothing happened, he grimaced.

'I said: put that thing down, we're eating the breakfast.' he repeated, already annoyed by the behavior of the kid. Usually Kankuro was an obedient child, but sometimes he seemed to just test his nerves. Usually n the worst possible moments. 'Kankuro!'

'In a moment.' said the boy and he shrank a bit lower on his seat, the beeping sounds filling the whole room. Daichi felt the vein on his forehead pulsing red.

'Give me that.' he commanded, getting up and reaching for the phone. Kankuro immediately looked up and moved his hands away, out of his reach.

'No!' he shouted 'Leave me alone! At Naruto's home we can play at the table!'

'You're not at Naruto's!' he shouted back and reached out even further, making the kid almost fall off the stool.

'Give me back my phone!'

'It's not even yours!' shouted the kid and jumped up from the chair 'It's mine! I only borrowed it to you! Go away!'

'How dare you speak to me like that!' was angrily shouted at him.

'How can you just make us move out like that!' was shouted back, not less fiercely by any means. Temari's and Gaara's eyes kept moving to each one of them in pattern of audience watching two tennis players 'I don't want to move out! I want to stay here, with Kiba and his dog!'

'Stop talking about this stupid animal! Sit down in this instance!' said Daichi, bashing his hands on the table. 'Sit down and eat! We're moving out and that's final!'

'Naruto's dad would never move out from here!'

'I'm not Naruto's dad!'

'Well, maybe you should be!' Daichi felt all his blood getting away from his face.

'What did you say?' he roared three tones louder and higher than he should. Kankuro finally shrunk before his own eyes, covering at the tone 'Dare to say that again to your own father you little, ungrateful'!'

'Daddy…'

'…childish brat! I feed you with my own fucking blood and you dare to say such things to me-'

'Daddy!...'

'-what would your mother say if she heard your way of talking, huh? Is that how you talk to the person who feeds you and takes care of you in every damn second of their life? I swear, without all of you-'

'Daddy!'

'WHAT!' he roared, turning toward Temari, making the girl's eyes round up in fear. Her lower lip trembled down a bit as he kept looking at her, so he closed his eyes and sighed. Once again, he got ahead of himself. 'What is it, Temari.'

'Some… something…' she squeaked out, but it seemed that he scared her out too much. Her eyes started watering up even more. 'Someone…'

'The telephone rang.' finally said Gaara, awfully calm for such a tense atmosphere. He looked at him, and then at the cell. It seemed blank to him, but he decided to check it up.

This time Kankuro didn't utter even a word of protest when he grabbed it and stood up. The thing was indeed, empty. But then he heard the actual ring. It sounded like the pack of papers near his ear. He slowly turned around.

'Boo.' he heard in a smooth, too optimistic tone 'I came by to drop off the monition. And since the door were opened, I decided to invite myself in.'

'Mommy!' squealed Gaara happily, almost too happily. And of course, by then, the telephone really rang.

'_Good luck!'_ it wrote on the small greenish screen. It was signed by Mr. Uzumaki.

Oh yeah. Luck.

He needed it like nothing else in the world now.

#+#+#+#+#+#

They were late, but not really by much. Minato was pretty glad he had decided to move so close to the kinder, because if he'd had to take his tired and unusually clingy kid anywhere further, he wasn't sure he would have so much as bothered. Naruto was extremely docile in this state, but he also seemed to lack any sort of initiative. When Minato had told him to go change, Naruto had just stared at him until he had picked him up and done it himself. His son acted like a toy whose battery was running out and was slowly winding down.; and Minato desperately wished it was simply a combination of him being tired after all that had happened the previous night and the early hour, but if Naruto kept acting like this by tomorrow, he was taking him to the doctor for a checkup. Just to be sure.

Minato carried Naruto to the kinder (not because the boy had asked, because Naruto was uncharacteristically quiet) but because he wanted to do something to make Naruto feel the least bit comforted about what was happening. The little blonde for once didn't complain about being carried on his hip instead of his back and just snuggled on him until he had to put him down. Of course, Asuma asked. Forget the Spanish inquisition, no one expected the crouching kinder teach.

'is Naruto all right?' he took the boy from the blonde's arms, giving him a look before depositing him on the floor, where Naruto stood instead do the usual speeding towards the warmer room.

'Yes, he's just tired.' Minato said as he immediately reached for his packet of cigarettes to shook one out. 'He might be coming down with something.'

'Gaa-' Whatever he was about to say died when he caught his father quick shake of the head- his daddy didn't want Asuma-sensei to know. He ducked his head, face hiding even deeper into the fake fur of the parka, making him look all the more like the character from South Park. It wasn't normal. Minato didn't think his son being this quiet- an obviously upset little kid Naruto's age should be wailing on the floor and kicking things, and rightfully so.

Asuma looked at him suspiciously, but Minato was looking at Naruto and fighting to find his lighter at the same time, so for once he didn't have a chance to add something else to his list of 'reasons to be paranoid about'.

'Did something happen with Sabaku?' The blond shook his head, thinking that the truth was that something big *had* happened, only the way Asuma asked for it meant if they had had another discussion, so he wasn't really lying to him. Sure, he could have told him that Sabaku was moving, but then he'd start getting questioned, and he was nervous enough as it was.

No, if Asuma wanted to know, then it would be Asuma who would eventually call Sabaku when he saw Gaara was skipping, and then Sabaku could have the pleasure of telling him himself. Sounded like a plan. It also sounded horribly cowardly.

'I'm going then… call me if anything happens, please.' Kneeling down to the boy's height, he pulled back the hood of the parka, freeing messy blonde spikes he gently smoothed. 'Call me if you are feeling sick, _okej_?' The blond nodded, his hands twisting a little on the orange fabric.

'I'm not sick.'he mumbled, leaning on his father to give him a last hug. Minato nodded and squeezed him tight enough for the boy to let a little squeak. 'Take care of yourself-'

'You are coming to pick me up?'

Minato stopped in the process of remove g himself from the little blonde. Naruto was looking up at him earnestly, his eyes still tinged red, the blues of the iris standing out all the more because of it. Minato hugged him again, nosing the bright yellow hair.

'Of course I will, Naru. You are my only little fox.'


	22. 22: Faucet

The snow fell on the ground like nothing else. Besides that, the world fell apart.

'What are you doing here?' hissed the red-haired man, turning around toward the blond man. His sister's brother, blushed, smiling and still clothed in duvet jacket in melting snow looked like an angel from kids' fairy tales.

'Mommy!' chirped Gaara, completely engulfed in its charm, followed by a needy stare of Kankuro (he was turning into such a rebelling kid!). Only Temari seemed to be glued to chair like before. Untrusting.

'Sit down!' he barked at his kids, each one of them and all at once in the same time. They listened. Good.

'And you!' he barked even louder, pointing a finger at him 'I asked you a question!'

'I already answered it.' was the smooth answer of the merry fairy 'I brought in the monition. The door – were open.'

'You lie!' said Daichi, this time bark turning into a howl. He took a one, two, three steps forward, fisting both his hands tightly. With each step he looked scarier than he normally was. Temari curled in itself as Kankuro observed them both with insecurity. They rarely saw him so angry and offensive. Gaara didn't care. He only had his eyes for 'mommy'.

'Oh, actually, I also brought-' started the blond, taking a few casual steps back. It was not enough for Daichi.

'I never leave door opened!' roared the man, gritting his teeth harshly 'You broke into my house!'

'To tell the truth, I-'

'Get out!' A fist flew right before Yashamaru's eyes. The kind smile vanished from his angelic face. That only fired up Daichi more 'Get out, I said! You have no rights! You're the wrongdoer here!'

'But I-' said the man again, a bit insecurely this time. That was the last straw for the redhead.

'GET OUT!' he howled and rushed up the blond, as the other started immediately backing up into the hallway. Oh gods, he always wanted to break his nose in. 'GET OUT BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE-'

He missed with the first punch, because Yashamaru actually tripped while going backwards. But it was a poor luck, his aim was also as quick as strong. And that meant very bad. The walls from the hallway covered them up whole. He couldn't see his kids anymore. That meant he could get as violent as he wanted to. And then, something changed in the scared blueish eye. Before he could notice the change of temperature on freezing cold, he suddenly had his neck in a steely grip, cutting him clear out of the air as one of the hands actually grabbed him by his plexus and turned. The pain was impossible to describe.

'Why are you so hard to get by, Daichi.' murmured something lowly near his ear, disappointed and sneering 'I really wanted to spend a nice breakfast with you guys. See? I even brought groceries.'

Yashamaru pushed Daichi's head toward the right direction. Only now the man noticed the new element in his department, and that mean paper bag with so typical bagel and piece of greenery sticking out of it. But somehow, he couldn't start to care, even if that meant real food. Oh gods, the pain! He couldn't even breathe to scream it out.

'Mommy?' squealed rather worried voice of one of his kids from the other room. He couldn't decipher which one it was now.

'We will be right back, honey.' answered Yashamaru with a tone that was sweet, cherry and completely unsuiting his position now. Then he closed the distance between even more, almost touching his ear with his mouth 'You act so feisty. If I didn't put that down here, you'd probably break the food. I have glass in there. I got up so early to buy fresh ingredients. For your poor pitiful ass who can't do even that.' Harder turn. He felt all his muscles going tense from the lack of oxygen and the pain. He clawed at both of the hands, clearly scrapping them to blood because he felt the liquid, but Yashamaru didn't move an inch.

'What… do you know…' he rasped in unhearable tone as only his lips moved '…about…. getting up… here…'

It was sarcastic. It didn't faze Yashamaru a bit.

'That's a good question.' he answered in warmer, wondering tone 'You can tell me about it when we will be having a nice breakfast. Right?'

He didn't answer. He saw black dots flying before his eyes. Why didn't any of his kids come now and check what was going on? Oh. Right. He taught them better than getting up from the table before he announced the end of the meal. What an irony.

'Right?' was whispered more demandingly now as something near his chest almost broke and turned him back into reality. He had his back more wet from sweat than the last time he had to run a mile in a school's competition.

'Ri… ght…' he wheezed through the unclosed teeth. And Yashamaru let him go.

'It's so good that we finally found the common language.' said the man, still with unfriendly, rather snotty expression. Then he smiled back at him suddenly, so suddenly that Daichi almost could hear a comic book 'snap' from the change of expression 'I'm so happy, darling.'

Daichi winced inwardly. This was not the word anyone was allowed to use anymore.

'Don't you… dare…' he started. But the blond suddenly stepped up too close to him, staring at him again with unfriendly glare, only the bag covering for a bit of the right distance.

'Tell your friend you're busy with family.' was said in the voice that didn't acknowledge opposite rights 'You're having breakfast with your kids and nobody should interrupt you with childish texts. Got it?'

And without another glance he threw the redhead's mobile right at him and went away to the kids, already talking in sweet gibberish. Daichi looked at the screen helplessly. 'Help' he wrote at first. But then he deleted it and clicked simple 'Thanks.' The best he could do was not to involve the single parent with kid into this already messed up occurrence.

'I'll call you later.' he added. At least it was all he could do to not make it worse now.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'May I be frank?' the blond looked up from the tea cup he'd been nursing. Or more like, stroking, as if it were some sort of little furry animal. Tobirama wondered if maybe he should just listen to his brother and get a pet. Everyone was always dishing about the wonder of bunnies and cats for therapy, but then, who was going to take care of the thing on weekends? His girlfriend was allergic. The blond bit his lip lightly before nodding, clearly hesitant. He decided to take it as a sign of trust. 'You look like shit. Not that I'm trying to diminish the agony of final season, but as far as I understand it, the students are the ones who are supposed to be suffering. Other than correcting , teachers don't have it that bad, right?'

The blond gave him one of those odd, frightened expressions before plastering a small smile on his lips.

'It's not as easy. Exams take time, and there aren't enough hours to answer all questions, and with how cold it is, kids are getting sick-' And there the blond went again, and Tobirama wanted to start hitting his head on the table out of frustration. Minato was a nice person. A person who tried very hard to be as pleasant as possible. A person who didn't trust his new shrink one bit.

It wasn't uncommon, when people had been long term with a good psychiatrist, to get attached to hat one and weary of the new one, but he had waited long enough, and it seemed like if whenever he tried to steer the blond from the usual meaningless topics, Minato would spend the next two or three sessions skillfully avoiding saying anything personal. Now, he had waited a few session and done everything in his power to try and earn the fidgety blond's trust, but it seemed that Minato was completely unwilling to start any topic on his own unless he was practically forced to it. Tobirama was starting to worry he never would, and when it came to therapy, it was vital for the patient to feel comfortable and be able to share what was bothering them. He decided to be more forward and see where that would take him.

'I see. So I take your work is not what's upsetting you right now, then how about home, did you have any problems with your son- Naruto, isn't that right?'

He was reward by the blond giving him a look like if he'd just swallowed a live scorpion out of courtesy.

'I… well…-'

'You two had a fight?'

'What? No, we didn't- It's just-' he gave the younger man a few seconds to compose himself, but as seconds passed and all Minato managed was to give him a helpless look, he sighed deeply.

'Let's recap, then. Last sessions seemed to be going fine. You said Gaara's father was allowing you to take care of his kid all week, and all of them on Saturday-' which he personally found a terrible idea, mainly because it was openly taking advantage of the blond's inability to say no. Whether Minato himself seemed to like it or not was secondary, a person wasn't supposed to just ditch his kids in some stranger's house and then start mooching off of him with his own meals. Any moment now the man would want to move in. '-and you seemed contented with that. What changed?'

The younger man looked away, sighing softly before depositing the cup of tea on the table, over a folder piece of paper that he was using so as not to stain the wood.

'They're moving.'

'In?' Already? Oh God, he should have insisted more on the topic, not let the blond run right away with it… ?

'What? No, they're moving away…' the blond gave him a confused look. 'Sabaku's got a new job. They told me yesterday, they had to move right away.'

'That's sudden… Where is he going?'

'I don't know.'

'Didn't he tell you?'

'I don't…' actually, hadn't the redhead implied that *he* didn't know where they were going. '…I'm not sure.'

'Well… you said they were having some economic difficulties. Maybe it'll be for the better? A new position usually means better payment, especially if it requires relocation.'

'Of course. I'm glad for that, it's just…'

'…yes?'

'He's taking the kids with him.'

'…yes, parents usually do that.' The attempt at joke got a smile out of the blond, but it was obviously forced.

'He took Gaara, and Naruto was right there, and they were both crying-'

'…oh.' That couldn't be good. Minato's levels of stress tended to skyrocket whenever Naruto was involved, not that it needed much help. 'And what did you do?'

'Nothing.'

He winced a bit at the way the blond's voice cracked at the word.

'Naruto was crying and I just let him without doing anything.' It was obvious by the way his eyes glistened that the younger man wasn't far away from that either, and he was already diving on one drawer for the tissues when the blond just sighed, wiping at his eyes, resting tiredly on his couch 'I'm sorry, I just- I ran away. I waited until he stopped to do anything- why can't I do anything right when it matters?' He gave a look at the box of tissues, then slowly closed the drawer, leaning forward on the table.

'You are doing your best.' Tobirama said as nonchalantly as possible. The blond let out a stiff little laugh, shoulder shaking lightly from it.

'My best is shit.' the younger man shrugged, helplessly. 'I need Kushina. I can't do anything right without her.'

Ah. So it came down to that, in the end.

'Your wife was around your age and this was her first experience with parenthood, Minato. I sincerely doubt she'd do much better than you in any department.'

'You didn't know Kushina.' it was the first time he heard that hint of aggressively, of 'don't-even-think-of-going-there in the blond's voice, instead of a tactful retreat. 'She could do anything she wanted. She could do anything in the world.'

He was left staring at the blond, not looking away from the defiant glare, just returning it passively. It was Minato who looked away first. Tobirama let a few more seconds pass before continuing.

'No one is born knowing how to do everything. No matter how easy it might look for others.' The blond didn't look up. A good shrink knew how to chose their battler, and the youngest Senju liked to think he was a good psychiatrist. He decided to let the wife matter pass until it could be properly addressed, though at least now he knew what was an important topic to take on.

'So, your son's friend is moving away and I has understandably upset your son. That sort of things happen.'

'I know.'

'He will get over it.' The blond shook his head slowly.

'It's not fair…' he detected the self pity in the tone, the hint of melodramatics, but didn't say anything yet. 'This is the one good thing that came out of moving here, why did it have to happen now? Naruto's lost his best friend-'

'Your son is a well adjusted, sociable kid. He will make new friends.'

'No one will be like Gaara.'

'No, but they don't *need* to be Gaara.' The blond glared at him again, but he pretended not to notice. 'Friends come and go in life. Your son is four years old, he will adjust. It's normal that he cried and it will also be normal when he gets over it. Do you really expect him to hand with the same crowd of kids for the rest of his life?'

'But…'

Tobirama stopped, looking at the blond, waiting for the younger man to try and make some sort of retort that denied his assessment. There was none.

'These sort of relationships come and go, and it's normal for them to. Maybe it's unpleasant, but that's how it usually happens. People come and go from one's life constantly. '

'Yes, but-'

'Yes.' he emphasized the word, as if it would somehow make it easier for the blond to understand then. 'Your son will be unhappy for a while, but it's not something that will scare him forever. What about you?'

'Excuse me?'

'Are you feeling bad because that boy is moving, or because you were unable to properly handle the situation?' The blond winced, immediately reaching for his teacup and taking a long gulp. Tobirama hoped it was colder than it looked by now. 'Listen, parenthood isn't a list of achievements that you are supposed to get, Minato. Maybe some of your attitudes aren't the best, but you care for your son. You don't hit him, you don't starve him, you aren't abusive towards him, and maybe more importantly, you 'want' to change for him.'

'But I'm not doing anything right-'

'According to who?'

'Anyone with two eyes?' the blond's lips curled into a self depicting smile. 'I don't deserve Naruto. I can't do anything right by him…'

'According to who?' the blond looked up, expression puzzled. 'Has anyone but you told you that you are doing anything horribly wrong?' Again that expression, as if the blond had just ingested a mouthful of cockroaches out of some sense of obligation.

'I…'

'Anyone whose opinion matters? Who can have a valid argument?'

'But I'm not okay…!'

'You also aren't insane. You have no excuse in this case. You might think you are doing terribly wrong, but if I may be blunt with you? You are not a 'reliable narrator', as your lit's would call them..'

Now Minato was looking at him as if he'd downloaded a movie and turned on the subtitles to find them written in binary code.

'You have poor self image and mild chronic depression, so why don't you leave judging how you deal with your son to someone who can give you a better opinion? I'd suggest someone with dashing good looks, a wall full of diplomas and overpriced hour fee.'

He grinned at the younger man, holding it long enough the blond actually gave him a small smile in return.

'I… yes. Okay.'

'Now, tell me all that happened then, if you will?'

#+#+#+#+#+#

Clinking of the cutlery. Munching.

'Do you want another jam sandwich, Gaara?' The smell of bread. The strawberry jam, all fresh and opened, glistening with jelly texture, already half empty. Smell of freshly cut chive, mixed with white cheese, probably grown in the private corner of the house. Chives didn't grow this time of a year. It was a spring weed.

'Yay! I want!'

'Let me do it for you then.'

More clinking. A glass of milk, moved away. Sound of swallowing. A sound of chair being moved.

'Why only him? I mean... can I have one too?'

'Of course, Kankuro.' Clink. The sound of jam hitting the bread. The smell of newly made sandwiches.

Daichi looked up from his plate. His chest still hurt like hell, the pain resounding in this neverfading wave like a deep bruise. Delicious bread with honey (when was the last time he ate honey?) glued to his teeth, his tongue and his throat, making it impossible to swallow. In front of him, Temari quietly fumbled in her bowl of tutti frutti cereal. It was still half filled, even if he knew that from the three of his kids she was probably the most hungry one. As the oldest child she already had the feeling of a duty when it came to feeding younger and weaker (in this case, her brothers). She caught up on his stare and looked up at him, her expression gloomy and tense. She was also feeling uneasy at the new company at the table.

'Temari, do you want one too?' asked Yashamaru as he handed the sandwich into Kankuro's hands who chomped on it happily right away.

'No, thanks.' she answered in bland tone 'I'm still eating the cereal.'

'But I will do it for later, after you eat the cereal. Surely, such a small bowl can't be enough for a growing girl-'

'No, thanks, uncle. It's enough.'

Yashamaru had only looked at her as she turned her gaze toward the colorful plasma in her milk and started slowly munching on the food. Daichi could swear that something in his expression cracked, though maybe he was only imagining things. He felt the most insecure in this situation after all.

'If that's what you want.' was said as the he proceeded with smearing the jelly jam into the bread anyway. The temperature in his voice dropped at least two degrees if not more. 'I'll make you one then, Daichi.'

'No, thanks.' he muttered politely, refusing to eat more than he already had to. His empty stomach wanted to eat, but at the same time his throat knotted too tight to swallow anything.

'I'll make you one.' said Yashamaru again, this time clearly stating that he didn't care what he wanted. 'It's very good. Raspberry.'

_Stop repulsing me the food I like_ – thought the redhead, but he said nothing. After all, Temari also got her own sandwiches on the separate plate. She didn't touch any of them.

'Yummy!' squealed Gaara in the middle of chatter chat as the happy part of the family chatted away on sweet nothings. Daichi found that image horrifying, because it was wrong and slowly blended Yashamaru in when he didn't belong here at all. But some small part of him felt relieved. For the first time, his kids won't go to school hungry. Speaking of.

'It's time to go.' he said finally when the clock on the wall already showed they were late and that meant he was horribly late for his own work. Nothing new here at least 'Thanks for the meal.'

'Thank you!' muttered all his kids in different tones, making it a very interesting choir. Yashamaru, surprised, stopped with his cup of tea halfway to his mouth.

'Already?' he said in a surprised tone 'I thought that if it's so late they have free day of something… instead I'd be long gone driving them to their places.'

'Yes, me too.' said Daichi in a cold tone and got up, taking his plate along with Temari's one. It was obvious she was not going to touch those sandwiches, so he could at least hide them for later. Or something. He was not going to throw away food 'You can go now. And don't come again.'

'Oh, but I can help with cleaning from the table-'

'No.' Yashamaru stopped, looking at him, his smile slowly diminished into a cold understanding sneer. Daichi's glare spoke everything it should.

'Very well.' he said quietly and proceeded on drinking his tea. 'I'll be going too.'

'Temari, get ready to school.' said the redhead in response, like if suddenly Yashamaru lost all his value as a speaker to him. 'You too, Kankuro, Gaara.'

The girl quietly stood up from the table and proceeded on doing as she was told, dragging both whining siblings along with her. Unlike them, she also treated Yashamaru like air now. Daichi quietly collected the plates and forks. When he moved them to the sink, he went back for the missing spoons and knives. He was sure he will have to exorcize the cutlery that was used today by a blond man. It was good he gave him the ugliest one.

'Thank you for the meal.' said the man to the empty table. How ironic, considering that the most of ingredients were here today thanks to him. 'I'll just leave the monition at the phone table and I will be on my way.'

'Yes, sure. Hit the road.' he answered in chilly tone. To him, if he wanted, he could glue it to his forehead, as long as he was going away. Once he would be he will have to make sure to get kids to school and organize the big escape before their hours would end. With situation where Yashamaru simply sat around the corner, there was very little time left to waste, if any.

He looked at his kids, in the group of which the red-haired one made the biggest mess; it seemed that he wanted his 'mommy' to tie his shoelaces as Kankuro kept on bragging how his real mom used to do that (and he himself didn't remember anything like that). He wondered if not to interrupt, but then Temari simply stepped up and tied Gaara's shoes, making him twice as unhappy but solving the problem itself. He surely had at least one smart child in the family. He was grateful for that.

He was drowning the plates in water for easier scrubbing when he would get back later, when he heard soft, quiet, mature footsteps behind him. Now that was starting to get on his nerves.

'Yashamaru, I already told you to leave-' he said as he turned around. Click. The black dark hole in the small handy gun stopped him from saying the rest of the sentence. It was two centimeters apart from his forehead. Yashamaru moved. No, make that one. One centimeter apart. The blond looked like if he was doing his best at cosplaying the ten seconds before a volcano eruption.

'You son of a bitch…' he muttered through his jittering teeth in a low and yet pitchy tone he haven't heard for a very long time 'What were you thinking doing that to the children of my beloved sister… taking her life wasn't enough for you?'

He blinked, then slowly, very slowly turned around so he could fully face the man. He managed to notice through that the man was pale as ghost and that not only his teeth jittered but also his whole body was so tense it shook lightly. Also, the faucet was on and he was now throwing money down the drain. There was no helping that now, though. Also, what the hell.

'I don't understand what are you talking about.' he stated in a calm tone, even if he couldn't help but feel alarmed. Now his death and life were only a few centimeters apart, depending on the strength of the hold on the trigger. And so far it seemed that the distance gradually went smaller. 'Could you explain-'

'Don't play with me!' shouted the man suddenly. His bluish grayish eyes turned completely dark and hostile, which looked both dangerous and even more dangerous as it took away some sanity from this man's face 'Do you think I wouldn't recognize blood on a carpet if I stepped on one? I work with people who can recognize unused paper from the one smeared with invisible ink with a mere glance, so don't screw with me!... What the hell were you doing to them there?'

Oh. Oh shit.

'I didn't do anything.' Daichi said in a rushed tone, rising his hands to show instinctively show that he was clean on the matter 'It was accident- That's how Gaara got his scar on his forehead-'

'Yes, I noticed that!' hissed the man, moving even closer, making the tip of the gun touch his forehead with the cold metal and also, make his hands back to the sides 'I was wondering how it got there for a long time… now I've got the answer when I stepped inside your office to leave the paper!'

'My office? I didn't tell you can enter my room, you bastard-'

'Why, do you have anything else to hide?' answered the man in a mockery tone. Then his gaze hardened 'Well, do you?'

'This is a big misunderstanding.' he said helplessly, already feeling tired by how his life turned out to be. One problem after another 'Please, if you would call the hospital or, no. Mr. Uzumaki, he'd explain everything to you-'

'Everything?' asked the man, once again the sarcasm getting into his voice like slowly dripping acid. Daichi felt annoyance at the fact that his every sentence was cut off, but the way the gun was now pushing at his forehead, along with the trigger being held tighter and tighter, he couldn't really dwell on that 'Everything? You mean, those empty shelves too?'

'I- I sold my things.' said Daichi, feeling the level of his stress rising. Why did he have to enter his room? Why couldn't he just leave the monition at the dining table? Why did he think that he was actually phoning from the stationary phone anywhere? Why did he think that he actually held this phone in his room while the said phone stood, dusted and unused in the passage between rooms? And why not. He just had this poor luck every day. Every freaking day.

'Oh yes? And you were paid with bananas?' was another answer. Daichi didn't like where it was going 'Why does those fruits look like your things then- oh wait! Maybe because they ARE your things! I wonder why- oh wait! Maybe because you were planning on moving out of this house!'

He stood quiet. There were no other words he could add here.

'I'm so curious why…' said Yashamaru now with tone more angry and seasoned with irony so much it was bitter to the core 'But I know why. It's because you want to escape from here. Vanish from the face of the earth, from everyone who knows you.'

He looked up, his gaze unwavering. The gaze of Yashamaru was not easy to hold, but he felt no guilt. He was the one driven to the wall here, not otherwise - however the man put it. So it was not hard either.

'Did you plan on escaping from me, Daichi?' asked the blond man almost in a whisper, his voice thin and depressed, it almost felt pitiful 'After all I did to find you?'

The cold metal on his forehead burned worse than the fire from the sacrificial pyre.

'Yes.' he answered in a clear, plain tone. What was there to hide? All lies were written all over his face, he had been discovered on all his bases. Somehow, Yashamaru's bitter features softened.

'Oh.' he said in a saddened tone and then, slowly lowered the gun. 'Oh.'

'Yes.' he muttered, feeling all his tense muscles (which he didn't even notice he was tightening) slowly let go. Out of the sudden, the sweat showed on his forehead with all coldness and wetness. 'I'm so sorry, Yashamaru. But I had no other choice.'

The man only kept looking at him with a bit shocked and saddened expression. Then, he took a step away and turned his back toward him, facing the opposite wall. He noticed that the water still kept running. Without Yashamaru's gaze on him, he started searching with his hand beside him for the turncock blindly. He wetted his hand.

'So now, that you know everything-'

'No. It's me who is very sorry.' said Yashamaru, interrupting him once more. Daichi stopped, frowning. Somehow he didn't like the tone of that voice. Quietly, he finally got a hold on the turncock.

'Why-'

'I'm sorry but I can't let you do that!' said the man now with obstinate tone as he turned around. The last thing Daichi saw was the pistol getting right into his face.

Darkness.

'…I don't know, dad said…'

'…agreed…' he saw floor of the kitchen. The big running roaring waterfall kept running behind him.

Darkness.

'…in the boxes…'

'Yay! I'll take teddy!'

'…Temari…'

The movement of shadows on the wall. The dim shapes of legs moving across the floor.

Darkness. Voices. Laughter. Cry. More crying.

'…addy! Daddy! Wake up, daddy! He is taking them away! Uncle is taking them away! Da...'

Oh please, don't cry Temari. Daddy loves you. Don't cry.

He rose his hand to calm the crying girl, not really getting the meaning of anything, but then some shadow of the taller legs moved from behind quickly, pushing her away. Then the pain, cry and feeling mixed into one, and Daichi finally got knocked out for good.

#+#+#+#+#+#

So, in the worlds of a professional, Minato hadn't completely fucked up. Right, he hadn't (wasn't) giving his child the support he needed, but that didn't make him a terrible parents. Just a regular, day-to-day shitty one. So, it was a good thing he hadn't had a blown out course of hysterics over something that for all rights was upsetting the blond. It was bad that instead of doing something parently, he had run off until it was safe to return (but he had already *known* that, hadn't he?).

And like always, they told him he would be able to resolve it with the proper counseling. The problem was that well… Minato was ready to admit counseling *had* helped him a good deal. But then again, he hadn't had to face anything too stressing since two years ago, had he? When something bad enough happened, he'd just crumble again and become unable to move, like always before, and in his heart, the blond couldn't be convinced otherwise. And it had been different with Kushina there. Everyone could say whatever the hell they wanted, but when she had been there, these sort of things never happened. When they had finally gotten married, she had told him that people always got just what they needed at the exact time they would need it. It was all just a matter of reaching and taking it.

Then she had told him he was the best thing that had happened to her, and that had been the most beautiful and terrible thing she could have ever said, because he had always felt he wasn't good enough for her, but if she really believed that- and she had never given him reason to think otherwise… He wondered if that meant he was the right parent for someone as wonderful as Naruto. And he didn't think he was, at all.

The matter in the end was that while he knew this, he didn't really have anyone who he thought could do better in mind. He didn't want to abandon his son, even if it meant he might do better with someone else. He knew there were things wrong with him, but the matter was not only that he couldn't change them, it was that at some point he had become accustomed to them and he found it easier to live like this than try to change. It wasn't his fault he was like this right now, that much he was sure of. But if he did try to change and failed, like he had failed on so many other things, then who was he going to blame? Even so, Naruto deserved better, and he... well. He had to try.

By the end of his session he had about an hour before needing to pick his son up. Considering he didn't have to wait for anyone at the kinder today, maybe he'd pretend he didn't know what the grease on the broth was and take Naruto to an honest-to-gods ramen shop. Patching emotional wounds with food had never really worked for him, but he hoped his son would at least be able to appreciate that, given the circumstances, if not… he guessed they could get take out, or something. Maybe he'd cook something Naruto liked. Maybe he should just ask what did the little fox wanted to do.

He didn't really feel like going back to the department yet, deciding instead to kill time walking around until he had to go pick Naruto up. It'd be better to walk to the kinder instead of taking the bus too, he barely did any sort of exercise these days. Distractedly, he reached for his cell phone, turning it back on and checking for missing calls. There didn't seem to be any. He looked through the missed messages. One was from Ibiki, telling him he'd call later.

Another was random spam of his phone company offering him free 113 messages if he charged $20 this month (apparently his company didn't get that he had bought the unlimited package and that he was quite content to pay the full amount he was billed for) and the third was just a 'lol'. He answered that one by telling the person for the third time he had the number wrong and this wasn't any friends of their, then finally decided for blocking the number.

Maybe he could take Naruto to the park after lunch or something. Climate wasn't ideal still, but just one afternoon wouldn't hurt. Or hell, he rummage through the old cartridges and find some game he remembered and play with him for a while. He wouldn't really mind that. There was a fourth message from Sabaku, thanking him and telling him he'd call later.

'_Ok. Drive safely.'_ Again he wondered if he should add something to the end of the message, and again, he felt like a preschooler when all that came to mind was a smiley face. Sighing, he burrowed closer to his jacket and kept walking, stopping only when he found a store with used books and checking his phone for the hour… Maybe he'd stay here a little while and take the bus. Just a little while.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Daichi was again in the same place as before, the only clue to the fact he had moved at all being the stinging sensation on his scalp and the broken glasses lying on the floor. He was licking something in his hand, and it was too dark for him to see what, but the noise it made in the utterly silent night was enough to make him want to throw up. For a moment, he was sure he would, glands working overtime and filling his mouth with electrified-tasting saliva, but then he looked away, and his stomach settled, as if nothing worth mention had happened. He spat down on the earth and went back to the darkness.

This was awful. Completely awful. At first dad decided they had to drop off their schools and move again, so she could go and say goodbye to her normal life again. She didn't mind, she was kind of used to it anyway, but that didn't mean she actually wanted to leave. She liked her new calm school. The teachers that actually taught. And the rival that caught on the rivalry and didn't laugh in her face when she actually tried to start a competition. And then, uncle had to come for a breakfast. Sure, he brought many tasty things and it was nice to see the table full of food once again, but he actually had to stay through that. That took away all of her appetite. Later. Maybe she'd eat it later, when he would actually disappear from their life again.

But this time not only he did, but like a bad wizard from the story, he had to take her two brothers with him too. At first she didn't suspect anything, she only helped her brothers wear their coats properly, making sure that they wore things like they should for winter. But when they were actually ready and they waited and waited and waited and the tap kept on running it started to disturb her. Very. But when she was about to see what was going on, uncle came and pushed her back to the door along with her brothers.

'Do you want to go to my house for a change?' he asked. Gaara of course, agreed immediately.

'Yay!' he said, stupid little brother. But she could understand his behavior, a bit. But when Kankuro agreed, that was something she couldn't get.

'What are you doing! Stupid, stupid Kankuro!' she called him as the blond man started moving the boxes – their boxes – and started taking it. But her older younger brother had actually pushed her away, calling her 'daddy's girl' and 'childish crygirl'.

'Cry all you want, stay if you like!' he said 'But I don't want to stay here any longer! I'm going!'

'But daddy will be mad!...'

'I don't care! I hate dad anyway!' and he kicked her off as she kept on holding onto him. He could be stronger than her when he wanted to. That left her crying and helpless. Where was daddy? Why was he not coming when there was such a ruckus here? It felt all so wrong.

'Temari.' said the man with the nice smile, that nice smile she didn't like at all, because it imitated mommy so much and then, looked completely different 'Temari, don't you want to go with me? Temari?'

'No!' she cried 'No, no, no! Leave me alone, you monster! I'll tell daddy on you!' And he didn't do anything. He didn't force her or nothing at all. The only contact was made only when she tried to wake up daddy after she saw that he was lying on the floor like if he was sleeping, blinking, covered in blood- Now his head was covered in blood even more now. And he lied so unmontionlessly on the floor.

It was because uncle Yashamaru hit him. He actually hurt their daddy. And just like that, he went out, holding a box in one hand and Gaara by the other – with Kankuro following and closed the door. Ten minutes passed since. She tried, out of panic, try to shake daddy off the blank state, but he didn't move at all, so then she tried to actually close the tap as it was running and running, and running- She couldn't reach it. So instead, she went back to Daichi and shook him one more time. But it seemed that no matter what she said, no matter how hard she cried and how hard she shook him, the man just kept on staying still.

He didn't kill him, right? Uncle couldn't kill her daddy just like that, she didn't hear that death could be caused by such hit, people usually died because they were not careful enough when they passed the street or they were very, very sick, or because someone used something sharp- but not from such a hit, right? She moved the clothes on the man's chest, too weak out of fear to shake the big body anymore.

'Daddy!... Don't die, daddy!... Please!... He took them… He took them away to the car!...' Nothing worked. But if that didn't work, if even daddy out of all people in the world could be of no help, she had to search for it somewhere else.

She got up on shaky legs, still sobbing, watching him for a moment, and then, slowly walked away in the direction of the door. Maybe someone… somewhere… As she reached the door, she was already running. The door were opened.

'Help! Someone, help us!' she cried, as she run up into the faintly lightened corridor, even in the morning light. The place she never went up to, even with her dad. 'Help! Help, please!'

Someone had to be inside! At such hour, someone had to be!... But the door kept on staying closed.

'Please! Someone? Hello!' she called out, passing the place on the floor one more time in the opposite direction. And the same one again. 'Please! Help! Is anybody there?'

She started knocking out on the door, and when no one answered, she ringed the bells – something that kids her age didn't do very often as ringtones were quite high for her height still. Some bells didn't even buzz. They were probably broken. But some did. Still, it was no use. It couldn't happen that nobody would answer her call, right?... Someone… had to help… She cried even harder now, the words uttered by her mouth drowned in tears and became to look like a mumble muttered by a drunkard or dysfunctional people. Still, she didn't give up. Finally, one door had opened. It was Mr. Takaoka. Despite the morning light, the lights in his room were switched on and he still wore the same clothes as yesterday.

'What the hell is going on!' he roared as he opened the door, immediately hitting the girl with waves of rum and beer. He also still held bottle in his hand, but different brand this time 'D'ya not know wuzz time izzit? Stop with all that noise!'

And he was completely drunk. Still, it was worth a try. A chance as good as any that showed up at all.

'Ah… ah…' she said with a hiccup, trying to calm herself down; she even wiped off her cheeks, though they becoming more wet within seconds as she could hold on the tears 'Mr. Takaoka… my dad… my daddy… he lies there… I think something bad happened to him!...'

'Eeeeehhhhh?' was the answer, as the man lowered himself down, eyeing her up close and outvoicing her in volume at once 'Your dad you say? Did you come here to bring deh money?'

'Wha… no!' she cried out desperately, standing up at her toes to look at least a bit more taller. Gods, she hated being a kid at such times 'I said that my daddy!... My daddy lies on the ground!... He needs help!... Please, Mr. Takaoka, help us!...'

'If you have no money, then don't bother me, snot!' roared the man, not even listening her till the end and he slammed the door right in her face. The girl stared at it for a few seconds in silence, in a shock. Then she burst out in tears one more time and ran back to her flat, seeking inwardly a place where it felt safer than here, at the dark corridor, only with ghosts and people who didn't care. Daichi still lied on the ground in the same position as she left him. That was absolutely the worst.

'Daddyyy!...' she whined as she walked up to him, completely lost 'Daddyyyy, pleaseee, wake uuup!...'

Crunch. She stepped on something. And as it came out, it was a mobile phone. The same mobile phone that saved them all last time. She didn't see it before because tears fogged her vision too much. Maybe this time. Maybe this time too. What did she have to lose anyway.

She played with the phone for a moment, trying to get how it worked – and then she chose the number which she recognized, the number signed as 'Naruto's dad'. And she dialed. It was a clear signal. Beep. Beep. Beep…

She waited. And when she finally heard the voice on the other end of the line, the hand covered the speaker and took the mobile from her hand.

'No.' said Daichi in a croaked voice, looking at her with squinted eyes as the pain crashed on him with every heartbeat the rest of his body made. He couldn't let her talk with him like that. Not after all that. Oh, it hurt. And could please, someone, turn off that waterfall?...

'Where the hell are you.' He almost murmured into the phone. Louder voices made it worse for him, almost like if he was drunk 'I swear I will kill you.'

The blond looked at his phone in shock, actually pulling it away from his ear and staring at the thing as if he expected it to be anything but a mobile device.

'Excuse me…?' the visor had said Sabaku, that's why he had picked up at all- if the man had stopped in the trip somewhere, he probably wouldn't have many other chances to make a call, considering police actually took a more restrictive approach when it came to driving and talking on the cell at the same time. Naruto looked up from his plate, a mouthful of greasy noodles on his mouth, and without thinking, Minato wiped a stray droop from the blond's chin. 'Sabaku-san?'

Daichi put three fingers near the base of his nose, nullifying the pain a bit and pulled off the cell from his ear. He couldn't concentrate at all, his head hurt like son of a bitch, his face was all covered in- oh, hell. He didn't understand a word from what was said because of that running water behind him also.

'Temari, be a good girl, take the chair and turn that off.' he muttered to the crying girl who cuddled to him like a wounded puppy. She looked up at him, still sobbing, making him wonder if she actually could do it, but after a few moments she actually went and did. Oh that was good. The silence. He could hear her sobbing all the clearer now.

'Come here.' he muttered as she walked up to his side again and burst into uncontrollable tears, shaking like in the strong fever. He stroked her back as he finally managed to sit up and only then he picked up the mobile again.

'Do you hear what you did?' he muttered, raising his voice this time. Screw the pain. There were worse things 'Can you hear that? Are you proud of yourself? I can't believe that you could do that…'

He breathed in and out. The anger burst in out of sudden, like if a demon woke up in one second, changing his state from one to another.

'YOU'RE DEAD! YOU'RE FRIGGING DEAD MEAT! I SWEAR, WHEN I WILL GET YOU IN MY HANDS O WILL SMASH YOUR HEAD AGAINST THE WALL UNTIL I CAN SEE YOUR BRAIN! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?YOU'D BETTER STILL BE SOMEWHERE WHERE I CAN FIND YOU!

The blond's reaction was immediate and automatic- he closed the phone and left it on the counter, pulling away from it slightly. He just stayed where he was, silently at the device while his hands wrapped around himself.

'…daddy?' Naruto swallowed what was on his mouth and wiped at his lips with his shirt sleeve, leaving a small dark stain.

'…sir?' the cook, who had been wiping at the counter looked at the young father sitting two seats from him. He had looked fine a moment ago. Now he looked like if he were trying to blend in with the leftover snow outside.

At the beeping sound, Daichi had only hung his head lowly and dropped the phone on the floor. What else could he expect actually.

'There, there.' he muttered quietly as he turned to the girl, hugging her fully like he rarely did, softly hugging his cheek to her head. It felt a bit like holding onto the hysteric Gaara – at some points the siblings resembled of each other. It was so funny he couldn't help but feel like crying. His two kids he tried to protect for almost their whole life were just taken away – who knows where, for who knows how long. And he had no idea how to reach them.

'I'm here.' he murmured and stopped the tears. The acid sensation in his throat didn't go away though. 'It will be all right. We will think of something. We will.'

'SHUT UP!' yelled someone drunk from the outside and then something made of glass broke with a loud jingling.

'It will be all right…' he muttered weakly, hugging his daughter, his only child now even tighter. Gods, his head hurt.

'Will it be?...' whispered quietly Temari. He didn't hear her. Maybe it was for the better.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'Are you sure you are all right…?'

For once, the person asking this wasn't his son, but the man attending the food stand. He had quietly asked him if nothing bad had happened, and when Minato had muttered something vague and hopefully believable, the man had left for a moment, only to return with a small pink pastry.

'On the house.' he had said, then give the blond a look that indicated neither of his customers were leaving until he saw the older one of the pair consume it. Apparently the man thought his blood sugar had dropped somewhere astronomically low and wouldn't let him go until he was sure he wouldn't fall flat on his face two steps from now.

Minato tried to protest several times, but there didn't seem to be any way out of it- he split it in half, leaving the bigger part next to his son's plate, and dejectedly nibbled on the sweet-bean filled pastry. Oddly enough, it actually did help him feel a bit better, and it also apparently made him look the part, because his son resumed eating and the man nodded, clearly satisfied. Under normal circumstances, it might have taken Minato over two hours to gather the courage to do what he did next, but either the talk with his psychoanalyst earlier this morning or the nice atmosphere of the place and the cook's concern enabled him to reach for his cell phone again, carefully opening it and having a look.

Yes, he hadn't seen wrong. The call had come from Sabaku's phone, only it hadn't sounded like Sabaku at all, and what he said made no sense. Giving a look at his son, he turned slightly away so he wouldn't see what he was doing, and he hit redial. The phone was already ringing when he realized he could have just sent a text and not deal with this, but by then, he felt it was a little too late to back up.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Ring. Ri-ring. Ri-ri-ring. The phone ringing again after such a short time sobered the man up a bit. Who could call him up now? Obviously not Yashamaru. And if it wasn't the so lovely kidnapper-in-law, it couldn't be anyone else but…

'Naruto's dad.' He read quietly from the receiver. Temari had only shook her head but he didn't understand what she meant by that. He mused about the call for a short moment. Oh yes. He texted him he would call him later. Probably the man ran out of patience before he could even think about doing that. He was a bit unfortunate with the chosen moment.

'Hello.' he said quietly, with a bit hoarse voice. The yelling he did a few minutes ago did take a toll on his voice chords after all 'Sabaku speaking.'

'Sabaku-san?' the blond sounded torn between relief and concern.

'Speaking.' repeated the man dully, not even trying to sound intelligent 'I'm sorry, I said I will call you later, but something came up and… I didn't.'

There was a pause from the younger man's side, followed by carefully controlled statement.

'Is everything... did you call me just now? Someone with your phone number did.'

'No, I didn't.' he said and caught his head by the brim of his nose again. What the heck was that man talking about? It seemed that if the day was not getting any worse, it was going to get weirder for sure. 'I already said that I couldn't call you up until now. I'm having some problems now.'

Big problems. Horrendous problems. Catastrophe went by so he didn't call him.

'Can I do something for you? You sound a bit strange. You all right?'

'No, it's- I'm right, forgive me.' the blond's shoulder slightly relaxed at the older man's words. 'Maybe it was my phone. I'm sorry I bothered you. Please call me again if you need anything.'

The words were a bit strange given the circumstances, but he didn't think too hard about them. Maybe he had just... imagined what had happened. Or maybe the calls had gotten mixed and he'd accidentally picked something he shouldn't have, or maybe- he turned around to check on Naruto, now stiffing his face with the sweet the older man had given him. If his stomach hadn't been tense from fear still, he might have considering ordering another for himself.

Daichi listened to that through the phone. He couldn't really recognize what was the man doing – only that he probably wasn't watching anything out loud. Or maybe he was outside, because the air seemed to be a little more loud than it was inside four closed walls. He smiled lightly.

'Oh, that's fine then.' he muttered and swallowed the saliva. 'We also are fine. Gaara sends his greetings.' What a vile lie it was. And it made Temari look up at him with wide eyes. For a moment it was completely quiet around again. He glanced at her and turned to the side a bit. 'We will call you back when we will settle. All right?'

The sudden movement on his side made him look back at Temari. Indeed, she was now standing up, which meant, compared to his sitting position, she was taller than him.

'It's not all right!' she shouted and stomped her foot on the floor. He covered the speaker with one hand 'It's not all right at all! Daddy, tell him!... Daddy, he helped us before…'

'Goodbye.' was the only answer to the phone. Frustrated, the girl leapt for the cell, actually making the almost successful leap toward it. Successful, because she had hit Daichi on the head with her elbow so she had almost touched it, and almost, because all that wasn't achievement, was a failure.

'Temari, calm down.' said the redhead as he finally found the 'off' button and laid the phone down. 'What do you think Naruto's dad can do here? He is just a single stressed parent…'

'But I don't wanna do everything alone!' shouted the girl and turned around to run to her room. Daichi winced at the next outburst of cry that could be heard from there and covered his eyes with his palm lightly. He needed medical care. Until the shock didn't wear off.

Minato heard the struggled, not rally able to make out Temari's voice besides the 'not' part but he didn't like at all the idea of the little girl sounding like that, much less the sounds of the cell being handled that way. It was true that Temari was a bit bossy and had a tendency to get a bit physical, and sure, he hadn't seen her interact with her father extensively, but it sounded really strange to think of her physically retaliating towards him.

'Sabaku-san?' he heard the girl's high voice again, fast and high, and Sabaku's oddly calmed voice bidding him goodbye before he was left with the dial tone for all company.

He didn't like what he had heard. He wasn't sure why he didn't like it, but he didn't, and the more he thought about it, the less he liked it. Still, what could he do? Call back the older man and ask him if he was really, really sure everything was okay? Tell him to drive all the way back to his house just so he could be reassured the kids were safe like the man had done last time?

With a sigh, he closed the phone again, stashing it was in its usual place in the holder attached to his hip. Naruto was looking at him with big blue eyes, lips still glistening from the soup plus and the pink crumbs from the pastry sticking to the corners of his mouth. He pushed the large bowl containing the bit of broth and noodles left, and the little automatically-parental corner of his mind noticed that the boy had left the green onions as well.

'You can have what's left if you wanna, daddy.'

Minato smiled a little, finger combing fruitlessly on the unruly blond mess of the little blond's head, shaking his own.

'No, thank you, _Lisku_. I've had enough.'

'Oh…' Naruto looked at the bowl, at his father, then at the bowl again, blond brows furrowed. Then he grabbed at it and started slurping at the broth nosily, Minato wincing lightly and looking around to make sure they were disturbing anyone. He wondered how could Naruto eat food, then dessert, then wash it down with more food.

'Naruto, please, with the spoon'

'But that's slower!' Naruto used his sleeve to wipe at his chin, and Minato dove for the bowl before it had a chance to topple over. It was at that moment that the laws of Murphy remember how much they liked naturally nervous blonds, because it was he, not Naruto, that actually knocked the thing down, shattering it nosily on the floor.

'…_kurwa_.'

Naruto gaped up at the word his father has just muttered and covered his face, dissolving into childish giggles.

'Naru!' the blond's scowl changed immediately into an apologetic expression, crouching down to start picking the bigger pieces.

'I'm so sorry-'

'Don't, you'll get cut.' The attendant was there immediately, a short sweeper and dustpan at hand. Minato left the pieces he had already picked on it, wincing at the mess- at least it had been already almost finished.

'I'll pay for it, I swear.'

'That's okay, it happens often. I keep telling boss we should get the plastic ones, but they stain too easily, y'know?' Minato didn't, really, but he nodded either way to be polite, making sure no stray shards had gotten into his son, who besides looking perfectly fine, still looking like if he hadn't quite gotten over his bout of hilarity yet.

It took a few minutes to settle the bill, Minato leaving a large tip to the friendly waited and writing down the address in his cell as Naruto had liked the food and Minato had liked the ambience. Clean, not too crowded- looked like a nice place to come when he wanted to spoil his son with ingestion of butchered animals.

'…daddy?'

'Mh?' he looked down at the little blond, instantly becoming suspicious when he realized the boy had been uncharacteristically silent. 'Can I say '_kurwa_' too?' he looked up, big, blue eyes set on the older male and an irresistible expression on his face.

'…no. Never. Never say it again, Naru. It's a bad word.'

'But you- you just said-'

'You can say it when you are older than me.'

There was a short period of blissful silence. It got him back to thinking about Sabaku, so he wasn't entirely disappointed when the whiny tone of his son interrupted it again.

'But I'm never going to be older than you!'

'Yes. Exactly.'

'That's not fair, daddy! That's not fair at all!' despite his words, Naruto lifted his arms in a clear request to be picked up, the gesture so Gaara-like that it made him feel a little overwhelmed about the fact that he wouldn't be seeing him again either. He concentrated on the fact that Naruto was still feeling a bit clingy, considering his arms immediately went around his neck, one pudgy cheek resting on his shoulder and cuddling closer. Sleepy too, likely.

There were further grumble from his little blond, but very quickly they were drowned by soft snoring. Minato supposed he could let the boy nap on the way back home, even if he knew he'd be the one suffering the consequences later tonight. Naruto hadn't mentioned Gaara at all, which he found strange, given the circumstances. He'd have to try and see about it, as for Sabaku… He thought about the call he'd gotten before, about the incongruent screaming and accusations. But calling back right now would be rude, not to mention probably irk the man needlessly. He'd send him a text in a few hours, asking him if he could give him a call.


	23. 23: Cappucino coffee

'Daichi, what's happened to you?'

The redhead moved the head to the side and winced a little. Since the wounds healed a little, the skin went dry and had tendency to tear a little at the sudden movement of the head. Which was very unpleasant. To his bad luck, Baki actually had to stand on the wrong side of his neck turn.

'Nothing.' he muttered, trying to look as cold and as natural as he only could 'I kissed the door clamp on the full run.'

'Oh.' said the man, obviously not believing him, even if he did his best to try to treat it like a normal bruise. A band aid wasn't what really helped on such a swelling, but he thought that it toned down a bit since he has been standing on this cold outside for so long. Apparently, it seemed he was wrong. The window glass on his left seemed to agree to that theory. Dang, and he thought that his face was warm because of his blood pressure.

'And… who's that?' asked the man again, trying to be tactful and lacking it at all in the same time (though there was nothing wrong with that question, but Daichi went through a little much for one single morning already).

'That's Temari' he muttered in a low voice, displeased greatly 'My daughter. She has a day off the school so I took her with myself to show her how daddy works.'

'Oh. Hello there, Temari.' said Baki, looking down at her. Daichi instinctively pulled the small body even closer to him. The girl almost hid behind his knees at this point.

'Good morning.' she said, looking around tentatively 'Nice hat.'

'Thank you. It's a birthday present from my wife.' answered Baki with a little smile, but the seriousness was all back when he looked back at Daichi. The redhead seemed to feel quite uneasy as he looked around the whole place like a small mammal expecting to be attacked from every corner. He coughed, getting his attention to himself.

'Boss won't be happy about her.' he muttered, quiet enough for the kid to not hear it (or at least, he hoped so). But Daichi didn't seem to worry about it.

'That's not your problem.' he said and tugged the girl by the hand 'Come on, we're going. Goodbye, Baki.'

'Goodbye.' said the man, then shrugged. At least no one could say he didn't warn him.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato waited until he got home, checking the clock and deciding some extra twenty minutes wouldn't hurt his son. He had checked again to make sure, but the little blond didn't have a temperature, so the lack of usual exuberance was likely just a combination of lack of sleep and misery. At least those would go away with time. At least he hoped. And speaking of things he hoped… With a sigh he pulled out his cell phone, giving the white and red device a mistrusting look, as if it were a wild animal that might bite without warning. After a few seconds, he opened it and quickly typed out a message.

'_I'm sorry, could I call you later, if that's all right? I'd like to talk with you.'_ he looked at the message, his finger hovering over the 'send' button. It sounded vaguely accusing. He didn't want to sound accusing. He took off the _'I'm sorry'_. Senju-san thought he apologized too much. It sounded even worse. Now it even sounded vaguely threatening. The blonde snorted softly- as if he'd ever manage to do anything threatening in his life.

He took off the _'if that's all right'_ next. A bit better, but still… He caught his bottom lip with his teeth, nibbling on the skin a little less than gently as he looked at the blinking underscore, waiting for him to make up his mind over what he'd be sending. Minato almost felt bad for it, stuck with a person like him as an owner. It took him a few more minutes, but when he finally put together something good enough, he sent it immediately, knowing that if he started analyzing how the sentence was constructed, he'd chicken out of it_. 'Can I call you in a couple hours? If you are busy, just tell me when would be a good time.' _

Good enough. It would have to do. Getting up, he grabbed the fruit bowl from the top of the refrigerator and looked through what he had, then starting to look for a bowl and a knife, thinking he'd make a fruit salad. He didn't feel like cooking at all, in fact, a nap sounded pretty nice… but he already knew he wouldn't be able to close an eye like this. Not until he got an answer, at least.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Daichi was through working of one of the harder files when the telephone started beeping.

'Temari, give me the phone.' he muttered around the pen he had between his teeth, holding a paper in one hand, pencil in other, and second pencil behind an ear. The girl obediently walked up to his suitcase and gave him the phone. She didn't like it here. The office was maybe not the biggest, but with the window the redhead kept constantly curtained, it gave the sense of claustrophobia. She couldn't go to toilet without permission, she couldn't stop doing lessons without permission (even if she already did them, so she had to do them twice), she couldn't get out of there or even behave loudly (which consisted talking at all).

Actually, she couldn't do anything without permission which Daichi gave only when he had time to listen to her, and he didn't have it at all. He just sat in his books and counted countless things like if it was the most important thing on the world. More important than her brothers who were who knows where and did who knows what. Temari felt like crying. She'd like it ten, no, hundredth times more to be in school now than here. But she couldn't, because uncle could be there first and he could take her by a force, even if she would scream and run away from him.

'Will everyday be like that?' she tried asking him, but he waved her off impatiently. It seemed that whatever daddy did was a serious thing and when it was serious, then it meant big thing.

Temari sat down with a huff and when the phone rang she was actually grateful for at least something different happening than before. She peeked at daddy from her notebook, but Daichi actually had a sour look on his face so it wasn't very pleasant. It couldn't be from uncle Yashamaru from what she saw.

'Temari, get the phone and write back something.' he said, giving her back the receiver 'Like: Daddy's busy, will be on at nine or later or something like that. Can you do it for me? I can't lose my track on numbers now.'

She nodded. Finally, something more interesting. She looked at the address of the text message, and almost gasped. It was Naruto's dad! She glanced at the man, but he seemed to be lost in his own world again. That meant that phone was only hers now.

'Daddy's busy with work' she clicked at first as she was told 'He said he will be on at 21.'

She glanced back to look at him again and made sure he was still in his dimension, then started clicking away. 'I'm with him in his work. Can't go back to school. Kankuro and Gaara were ta'

'Temari, are you done?' asked the redhead suddenly, startling her. The beeping noise also distracted him, and even if he wanted to give her something to get her away from the bore he saw her struggling with, he didn't expect it to take it so long 'This is noisy.'

'Yes, I…' the blonde looked at the screen. Accidentally, she clicked the 'send' button out of scare. It seemed she had no luck. 'Just sending it.'

With few clicks she deleted it from the memory and pleaded for it to not be checked, not now, not later. But Daichi seemed to be so engulfed with work that he didn't even grant her with glance when she put it away. A few minutes later, the door opened, showing the unknown face in glasses.

'Mr. Sabaku, Orochimaru-sama wanted…' he said and stopped, looking at her. Now that was an uneasy stare. '…who is that?'

'My daughter.' said Daichi, suddenly very distracted from his work, and at the same time, not minding it at all. 'She wanted to see how I work.'

'Mr. Sabaku, we already had a talk about this. No kids in the office.' said the man, readjusting the glasses on his nose and staring at the girl with dubious face.

'Special circumstances.' said the man with face as cold as arctic ices. The other man smiled, also not very warmly.

'I see.' he muttered and closed the door. Daichi slowly let go of the breath he held. This was harder than he expected.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato stared back at the little screen, his tongue darting out every few seconds to lick the fingers he held against his lips. The lemony flavor didn't really help him make much sense of it either, but it was a nice physical distraction. He gave a look at the clock, thinking he should already go wake his little blonde up, but as if forced by a magnet, his eyes went back to the screen. Stop avoiding the goddamned issue. But it was so confusing! As a rule, Minato didn't really like getting into confusing matters. He needed things nice as simple, for confusing things he already had himself. Of course, he also didn't do 'complicated', and yet here he was.

He has practically forced Sabaku to let him take care of his kids despite the man quite obviously not wanting to let him, and all for what? Kids were a mess. He barely could handle one, no matter how nice Naruto could be. Then there was Gaara, who was adorable and sweet as hell, but he also was very demanding, and yet he hadn't really cared. And Temari and Kankuro, who couldn't spend a single hour without starting a fight, and three very territorial and easily jealous siblings plus a rambunctious little fox were enough to stumble an army. And yet he'd asked for all of them. Hell, he sometimes even took care of the father when he was at it. And not because he asked, as Senju-san seemed to think, because Sabaku usually wanted to flee. He did it because… well. Because they needed help.

And if no one was helping them- it wasn't like he *had* to. He just wanted to. He'd told Sabaku he didn't think he was a bad father. He had mentally taken it back several times, but when it came down to it, he just felt empathy for the older man. One did what one could when he could. Minato had hardly been a stellar father the first two years of Naruto's life, as the faint scars on his cheeks could attest to, and as far as he could tell, Sabaku had managed to keep three kids virtually unscratched for five years. Just thinking of having to deal with another baby at the same time than Naruto… Minato was pretty sure he would have done something very drastic. Possibly with those delicious red capsules against cold he kept compulsively buying.

He was sure his mother would have appreciated the irony. The blond rubbed a hand on his face, thinking he reeked of lemons and oranges (and not particularly minding at all) and leaned more on the table, looking at the cell screen. Minato wasn't stupid. He liked to play along when people were bullshitting him because it usually kept him out of matters he didn't want to dwell on, but this…?

'_Daddy's busy with. He said he will be on at 21. I'm with him in his work. Can't go back to school. Kankuro and Gaara were ta'_

And that's all, and that was it. And Sabaku could bullshit him all he wanted, but something wasn't right here, at all, and the more he thought about it, the less he liked it. Sabaku said they were moving. He even made a very big scene in his house, in front of his kids, and went through the trouble of getting the boxes for it. Every time they talked he had acted as if they were about to go on the trip or were on it already- (except that crazy call).

He stopped at that, closing his eyes and leaning on his folded arms, breathing into the tangy scent of the fruit he'd juiced moments ago. He hadn't really though it was Sabaku. It hadn't sounded like him at all, actually, and he had heard him very angry and very threatening. He hadn't even actually *heard* what whomever had talked said right, just something about death threats and then he'd automatically closed the source of distress and disentangled from it. But the call had come from his number. He called not two minutes later and Sabaku was back sounding normal and acting like if he were on a trip. And now this?

The note had to be from Temari, because it mentioned her younger siblings in it, and none of the Sabakus talked in third person, like some kids did when they were younger or wanted to be cutesy. She said they were at work. Sabaku had told him and from what he understood to Asuma numerous times that he couldn't take his kids at work, despite several companies having those daycare programs for single parents. None of the kids had ever mentioned going to work with him, either.

What were the things he knew for sure?

1) Sabaku wasn't on a trip right now.

2) He had Temari at work with him.

3) For some reason, he didn't have either Gaara or Kankuro with him.

He looked back up, quickly clicking on a key when he noticed the screen had gone dark due lack of use. He read the message again. _Can't go back to school _He didn't like that sentence. He could tell from the message the girl was keeping sentences short, but the _can't _was a little too strong in here. Maybe she had had an accident? Or been suspended for something or other? Maybe Sabaku had forgotten to pay for the school? But all of the kids went to a public one. The _can't_ got stuck to his mind in an unpleasant way and wouldn't go away.

Why had Sabaku taken Temari with him at work? Where were Gaara and Kankuro? The little redhead hadn't gone to kinder. Maybe he had dropped him at Kankuro's school.

…had Kankuro gone to school? And if not, where were they? Sabaku might leave them alone, as he had before, but if he did, why take just Temari with him?

Kankuro and Gaara were _ta_. _Ta_ what? There were millions of words that could start with _Ta_. Tardy. Talking. Tagged. (Taken) Some days he thought he'd never get over Kaho. Spurred by the though, he suddenly stood, walking quickly to the living room to get his laptop bad letting out an annoyed groan when he realized it had run out of battery again. He wasted other ten minutes first finding and then disassembling the knot the electricity cable had turned into, but he finally got the thing to cooperate and open up, quickly checking for the files he had used some months ago, the makeshift map he'd made for the kids.

The name of Kankuro's school was there, and he quickly Googled both it and the address until it directed him to the right webpage, skimming through it quickly until he found the phone for it. He reached for his cell phone, though about it better (sounding a bitter stalkerish, maybe?). Phone calls had gotten him out of trouble before. Ergo, phone calls could get him back into trouble through the same means. He wrote the phone down. Then he went to wake up his sleepy little blond.

'Naru?'

'Hmmmuuu.' a little fist rubbed at squinted eyes, and the little blond snuggled further into the plush couch. 'Up, _Lisku_, daddy needs to make a phone call.'

'So make it.' a pout. 'I won't listen, even if you say bad words to Ibiki.'

'I never said bad words to Ibiki-san!' even as he spoke, he quickly got the jacket back on the mostly unresponsive Naruto.

'Yes you did.'

'No I didn't.'

'Did too.'

'No.'

'Yes you did! I heard you!'

'No, you didn't.' If he hadn't been so busy thinking of what to do next, he would have laughed at the crossed foxy expression on the little blond's face. Minato looked down at his mini-me, one eyebrow up. 'If we go out, I'll buy you an ice cream.'

That got the blond's attention, giving enough time for Minato to get on his own jacket, his phone and the number. Ice cream and ramen? His daddy must be feeling really bad about the bad word he'd said before. Naruto quickly stashed it in the mental drawer labeled as 'parental blackmail' all kids seemed to have been born with.

'…creamy one?' he asked cheekily. 'Creamy one, but the popsicle kind.'

Well, one couldn't have everything. It was a pretty sweet deal as it was. Five minutes later, Naruto was inside the store, driving the poor attendant mad as he asked him what did every flavor have and which had tasted better while Minato kept an eye on him from the public phone right outside, dialing the number for Kankuro's school.

After a long beeping the click of a lifted receiver.

'…is anyone working here at all? I have lessons to do, where's the secretary! Mr. Satetsu? Mr. Satetsu! Oh, I will take it… Hello, the secretary office of Aka Suna School's Assembly. How can I help you?'

It had taken a few deep breathes and a lot of repeated scripts for Minato to calm enough to get this right without shaking. His voice, that is. He wasn't so sure he was shaking.

'Good afternoon, ma'am.' the blond said in a pleasant voice, lowering the timbre slightly and laying on the local accent a bit more thickly. 'I'm sorry to impose on you like this. My name is Moroshita Haruka, secretary from accounting at Sound enterprise. I work for Mr. Sabaku, Father of Sabaku no Kankuro? He is in first grade.'

'Just a moment, please… why do I have to take care of that, I'm not even paid for that…' There was a long pause interrupted with the sound of papers flicking. 'Ah, yes. Sabaku no Kankuro. What about him?'

Well, there it went.

'As I said, I'm sorry to rob you of your time, but Mr. Sabaku left me a memo asking me to pick up his son today, but there's a small software problem and the calendar in my computer and the one Mr. Sabaku's laptop aren't matching. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to go today or tomorrow, and it's kind of important because he's already left for a meeting and he's not picking up my calls.' An exasperated sigh 'The girl in the morning shift said he told her the boy had an appointment today, so he might have skipped school altogether, but of course, it wouldn't be the first time she makes me look bad in front of the boss. Could you please tell me if he's there, and if he is, at what time we are supposed to pick him up? It says 5:30 here, but if the date is not right-'

'Appointment? That boy had more appointments in his life than I can count.' muttered in the speaker 'I actually teach the class C in the morning three days in each week and he is always so late he could as well not come to them at all. And he always has a new reason. Enough for three people already.'

A sigh, tired one.

'I fear that if that might go on he might not get a promotion to the next class. Too bad, he actually is a good student, when he tries, I mean. Let me see…' A sound of papers fluttering again. 'Sabaku no Kankuro is absent today, I'm sorry. It seems that you have some bad friends in your office there. But it's good you call, nobody made any excuse for his absence yet. Not that I find it unusual, but…'

Sound of scribbling on paper.

'Is that all?'

He sighed again, as if that was the answer he had been expecting.

'More than enough, thank you very much for the help, miss, you saved me a pretty big taxi fare. Have a nice day.' After hearing the answer, he quickly hung up and walked in, Naruto already having convinced the clerk to open him a banana and chocolate ice cream and contentedly sucking on the frozen treat. He thanked the man and paid for it, then bought a packet of cigarettes, letting one on the way home. Kankuro wasn't at school. Gaara hadn't been at the kinder. Temari was with her father, at work. Just where were the younger kids? (taken.)

'Are you cold daddy?' the little blond asked, tightening a hand around his father's hand. When he felt him shiver.

'No, _Lisku._' What to do now? 'I'm fine.'

#+#+#+#+#+#

At the Sound Company, the day took twice as much when it came to length. Temari managed to do her homework twice, checked it and even made the exercises forward, trying to understand them along with the main book, as Daichi did nothing but counted, counted, made a mistake and counted everything all over again.

For both of them, it let them forget about the recent life for a moment. And that was doing them good - for Temari – because she couldn't do anything, and for Daichi – because he couldn't skip the triviality of life, even if all he wanted to do was to get his car and ride around the town looking at people on the street. Though maybe it was better, because it would only stress Temari, and Yashamaru would probably hide in some closed space for a few days.

He quietly hoped that the police would do the patrolling for him, but even as he made the report in the morning, he already knew that it would land in the mountain of similar cases, and somewhere around tomorrow it would probably disappear from acts also. Yashamaru had to have his carts blank and he knew how to use his connections to keep them like that. But he hoped they will – what else could he do.

The moment he finally stepped outside the company, he felt relieved. Beside the unpleasant encounter with Kabuto nobody really made a problem out of anything. He should repeat that tomorrow. Until he'd think of something else. For now, he couldn't really imagine himself leaving his daughter unsupervised yet. He had only managed to tie his own scarf on the little girl's neck, when his cell mobile rang. Who could that be at this time? Maybe him? But when he looked at the screen, he calmed himself down a bit. No, not him. Not this blond at least.

'Hello' he muttered, opening the cell as he grabbed the suitcase and the girl by her hand as she waved byes to the passing worker. 'Sabaku speaking.'

'Sabaku-san?' Minato's voice was decidedly unenthusiastic, nothing like the usually pleasant or at least polite tones of usual. 'Namikaze Minato speaking.'

Daichi didn't like that tone of voice. Did Yashamaru come and harass the blond too? It could happen, knowing what his in-law was capable of. That would be a bad luck, but at least he would have some trail of the way he went.

'Good evening.' he muttered politely and went out of the front door. The cold hit him like a wall, taking his breath away for a moment. Temari shuddered, he felt it through her palm. He stopped and tugged the scarf the way it resembled of hook, as it was big enough for a child to do that. He had to undo her pigtails for that, but it was nothing. She resembled her mother the most at such state. He smiled at her a bit. She smiled back, almost only a bit. It was actually all sad, that smiling. 'Has something happened? It seems you wanted to talk to me a few hours ago. I apologize, I was busy.'

'Don't worry, it happens.' the blond said, a smile shifting into the tone, marginally warmer. 'Long day at work?'

'Apparently.' was the answer as the walk was resumed. 'Now I'm on my way toward home. I think you're happy that for once I won't be bothering you so late at night.'

There was a short pause on the other end.

'...It never bothered me, Sabaku-san. I never minded having the kids around, or...' it was obvious he was going to add the man to the sentence, but he couldn't get himself to. Not that it wasn't true, because he really didn't mind. Sabaku wasn't his ideal type of person, but over time he had come to get used to the older male… yet it sounded wrong, just saying it like that. He really didn't want to say the wrong thing now. There was a small laugh at the other side of the line.

'Oh, I'm sure that they weren't exactly angels, I know them.' Daichi stopped as he reached the car and started fumbling with keys 'Either way, you will have a rest from us now. Please, enjoy it. When kids grow up, even one can get hard to maintain.'

Another awkward pause.

'...Sabaku-san?'

Click. The door finally managed to open. The night chill started getting with freeze inside the locks so early this year.

'What is it?' he muttered as he left the phone between his ear and shoulder and lifted Temari to the front seat.

'I… I don't know how to say this without it sounding horribly creepy.' The blond started, excusing himself even before starting to talk. 'So many things are happening, and I'm just. I'm worried, okay? I'm worried about the kids. I'm…worried about you. Please don't think bad of me for this. I just want to know what's going on.'

Steps on the parking lot. Not too far away. The redhead frowned at the words. Maybe the man didn't want them to sound creepy, but by sole stating that, he actually did. All arguments started with words of 'I don't want to argue'. He lifted his head out of natural curiosity, not giving it much of a thought, as he never did to such sounds.

'You already sound creepy. What do you mean by this?'

But at the sight of the man approaching, he already understood. Without a word he clicked his cell phone off and closed his mouth in a sour grimace. What the hell.

Minato's eyes acted like those of a small animal, shifting from Temari's face behind the glass, to the father, to the car, to the father's face, to the expanding bruise on his temple-widening eyes- to his eyes, to the bruise…

'…what's happened? Are you all right?'

The man frowned and turned his head around with the better side toward the man. Now that was something he'd like to avoid. He didn't like what it bruise meant at all.

'Nothing.' he muttered as he hid his hands in his pockets 'I slipped on a soap in the bathroom. What are you doing here?'

'I thought… You told me….' The blond's expression became even more stressed than before, but he put his cell phone away as well, arms crossed in front of him, lightly gripping at the opposite. Half truths wouldn't work here, so he decided to be as straight as his nerves allowed him. 'I was worried about the kids. Where are they?'

'Safe.' was the answer as the man tsked. What was this with him? Why did he pop out so suddenly and came asking for such questions? Was his flat secretly put on a TV channel as the next 'Truman show'? He pointed with his chin at the car. 'As you can see, I have my daughter here and she has both of her hands and legs. So she's safe.' As for the rest, he at least hoped so that they also were. Yashamaru loved his sister dearly, so…

'I know. She sent me a message.' the blond frowned, just as uneasy as before. 'I meant Gaara and Kankuro. Where are they?'

The man blanked out for a moment, then took his hands around his pockets and started circling the car to get to the driver's seat.

'Kankuro's having a class trip.' he muttered as he went by, his tone monotone and annoyed like if everyone asked him the same thing over and over again already 'A week away in the Kusagakure village. Biology project. And Gaara is in the hospital under observatory tests as I need that for traveling through the countries and for the passport. They promised to take care of him until I come back from work. Why?' He stopped and looked at the blond with the same blank stare. 'Why do you care so much? It's freezing evening and you could just call, my phone is still working. Why did you bring your arse here? I thought we already said goodbyes.'

'I came because you are lying to me, because I don't know where your kids are, and it sca- it worries me.' For once, the blond didn't try to back away, but that mostly was a credit to the fact Sabaku hadn't stepped on his personal bubble. It was obvious by his expression that he knew that what he was about to say would be a terrible idea, but he said it anyway. 'Kankuro doesn't have a trip. I called to his school, he just skipped without an excuse.'

Why was the redhead lying? That, if nothing else, was the scariest part of it all.

'You did what?' The voices on the parking lot sounded loud and clear, especially in the cold air. That's why even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to hide the surprise that hid in his voice. 'You called his school?'

But such informations weren't given away just like that. He worked too much in business to know that. And that meant that blond actually had to make an effort to get such information. Slowly, his blank expression grew hostile. What was this, a Yashamaru Two: Reprise? The day was getting worse than he expected.

'So you're worried?' he muttered, then tched and turned his head to the side as he opened the door to his car 'You don't have to. I already sold them off into black market in pieces. Of course, before that I tried some. They were delicious. Now excuse me, I have to go home and make myself some human dinner!'

With that, he sat down into the car and started the engine. Temari looked at him with wide eyes.

'I'm joking.' he muttered, not really feeling like explaining the bitter sarcasm to her at the given moment. The girl nodded quietly. The honk beeped through the air aggressively. 'Get out of the way, I want to drive out of the parking lot!'

It was obvious by his expression that the blond wanted to. He actually gave two steps back, stopping at the third and holding his ground. From this distance, the car wouldn't really hurt him if the redhead decided to speed up, right? Unless he got under, but then-

'Look, I came here because I wanted to talk.' he tried to sound as non threatening and pacifying as possible, understanding what the other man felt but not really wanting to bond too much over it considering he might get seriously hurt. This was getting out of hand and he- oh, Minato had never been got at damage control. 'Do you have any idea how you are sounding, how all of this is sounding? Please.'

'No, I don't!' said the man, opening the window of his car and moving the car to the one side 'And I don't know what could we talk about! We barely know each other and my kids are no longer the topic! You cannot help me and I cannot help you!'

'Daddy!...' squealed next to him, but it quieted as the man stopped the car abruptly.

'Be quiet.' he almost growled and looked outside the window, straight at the man 'I only know that for some reason you start to sound like a stalker and I've had enough of this in my life. So give me one reason why should I talk to you!'

'I hate you, daddy.' muttered the girl right next to him, sounding much closer to tears now than before 'Kankuro was right. I hate you.'

'Shut up!' Now it seemed that the redhead was starting to lose it too. Minato wasn't staring at him but at his daughter, his expression caught in something between guilt and pity, hating the man for doing this to his kids without any explanation or excuse, hating his lack of understanding of anything that was going on, the fact he was now so into this he couldn't just walk out of it.

'Because I've done nothing for you but help you.' the blond answered in a controlled tone, doing his bets 'Because you can't name a single thing I've done that *wasn't* to help you or your kids, so why do you keep treating me like this? I took good care of all three of them all this time, and you trusted me to do that. So why are you treating me like this now?'

He frowned at the man as if he'd bitten something bitter. Given is words, it wasn't entirely out of question.

'I know how it sounds, and I'm sorry, but how else am I supposed to act? You don't tell me anything and when you do you lie. I just want to know all of them are safe, is that so terrible?'

'Yes, it is!' shouted the man, and his voice echoed on the parking lot so well it could be mistaken for mountain's echo 'Because I don't know what's happening with them and I'm going out of my mind with this already and now you, the person who has it all and got involved into all want a reassurment and I can't even give it! I don't want your pity and I don't want to have your worries added to what I already have, my emotional baggage is already too big for that!'

The man finally stopped, as ran out of breath. Nothing but a quiet sobbing from the other seat and heavy breathing accompanied with white steam could be heard for a moment. Then the man took the deeper breath and slopped on his seat, looking more worn out than before.

'Please, do me a favor and go back to your kid to play a happy family.' he murmured as he closed the window. The cry quieted even more thanks to that, being almost unrecognizable now. Just like that, Minato blanched. If he had been there, the man at the ramen shop would probably had run next to his side and asked him to sit while he made chocolate milk or something equally rich in sugar or equivalently on salt. Taken. Their father didn't even know where they were.

'…I… what?' he asked , suddenly feeling disoriented, as if he'd fallen asleep on the bus and woken up in a foreign neighborhood without clue how he got there or how to get back. 'Who...' he stopped, staring at the older man through the glass for a few moment, before frowning and opening the door. 'What's happened?'

The man looked at him for a moment in complete silence. Why all blonds had to have this gentle stubbornness in their traits? It seemed like almost everyone who was blond seemed to have it. It always showed in the hard steel stare and the soft features. He looked at it for a moment. He always had weakness for ambivalences when it came to features. They made people look interesting. And when he sated his esthetic taste, he simply grabbed the blond through the chest and pushed him back.

'It's cold.' he said simply and closed the door again, turning on the heater, even if it ate the electricity from the storage battery like hell. Now, that he had only one of his children left, he felt guilty over being so weak and being unable to stop Yashamaru from stealing the other children. Inwardly, he felt like if he had to compensate her for it, even if heater meant nothing and she only continued crying.

'Temari, take that scarf off.' he muttered and leaned over her to help her with that. 'It's warm here, you'll overheat yourself-'

But the girl had only moved away, brushing his hands off. What a surprise. So it seemed that when there weren't any younger kids around, Temari also decided to get as immature as she could with given occasion.

'So what!' she mumbled between her hiccups that shook the lithe body. The said scarf was already dirtied with snot 'So what if I overheat or not! Kankuro and Gaara are hidden somewhere out there by the monster uncle and a-all you can think about is a stupid scarf! I hate you-u-u!' Daichi sighed. Gods, he hated the situations like these. He hated being helpless.

But what he hated more was the fact his own kid was driving him up the wall like that. With one strong movement he caught the scarf and took it off, making Temari yelp in pain. He folded it with gritted teeth.

'Stop being so disobedient.' he growled 'I had the bad day as you've seen it all. Don't make me more angry that I already am.' The girl had only turned her back to him and continued crying. At the moments like these he couldn't help but want to beat her until she stopped.

Even on a good day, Minato wasn't the most graceful of creatures. When he'd been younger, he'd actually been in his school's track team and if it had been up to his teacher, he could have made it to nationals in the speed range alone, and nowadays he sort of looked the part, but it seemed that ever since Kushina had died, that was another thing he had lost as well: a basic sense of equilibrium. On a normal week, Minato could easily break at least one coffee mug, two glasses, and acquire an interesting amount of bruises and cuts from bumping into things or cooking. Naruto liked to joke to tell him he was the only person in the world who could trip on his own feet by standing still, and sometimes Minato felt he was being rather accurate.

Part of it was the imipramine, and he'd been told it would do that- as the dosages lowered, he found it was easier to grab onto things to break falls when they happened- but there still was a definite lag between his brain-body coordination. Also, gravity seemed to have it in for him. However, between the fact he practically hand' slept since two days ago, his current levels of stress and the valium he'd washed his prescription down with to gather enough courage to get down here after calling to Kankuro's school, what happened next wasn't exactly a surprise. When the older man reached to push him, Minato instinctively drew back, trying to avoid the touch.

Obviously he didn't manage, because the redhead managed to push him still, but it wasn't a particularly hard push. But the matter was that he did make contact because the younger man accidentally caught his shoe on one of the horizontal lines of the gutter directly behind him, tripping down. In the end Sabaku helped make what would have been a mediocre and embarrassing fall even worse, because with the added push, the blonde's gravitational balance went to hell and he fell on his back in a sudden bout of vertigo that made him utterly unable to tell where did 'up' begin. It was just his luck (possibly combined with Sabaku's already stellar one) that he fell on one of the trapezoid-shaped blocks of cement signaling the parking lots, his nape making an undramatic clacking sound that would have seemed more fitting of two wooden bats clashing together than a human head against packed cement. Dimly, he head the girl make a small stressed sound, but if he wanted to get there he'd have to get through the intermittently flashing blue and green worms that filled his vision, and he wasn't very sure if he could do that. In fact, if someone had asked him his name, he wasn't sure he would have been able to say it, let alone spell it.

The redhead was about to drive away, but when he gave the man the last parting glance, to his surprise, he wasn't glancing back. More, he wasn't even standing tall. He seemed to have lost balance and landed right onto the ground, like any unhappy diabetes would. Oh for the love of gods, he hoped it wasn't diabetes (even if the man didn't mention anything like that before; but who could know adults). But once he got out of the car, his eye quickly caught up on the position of the blond. It was obvious – the man fell because he pushed him. It seemed he didn't know his own strength.

'Hey! Are you all right?' he called out, feeling cold sweat coming onto him already. He didn't kill him, right? He heard of cases when a man died because he bumped his head, but if that's how the day was going to end for him, he was going to burn the church. Gods who would made him go through this didn't deserve anything else.

'Temari, stay in the car.' The girl nodded, observing how the man quickly buttoned his suit on one from many buttons and ran up to the laying body. She didn't like it. She didn't like it so much that she even stopped crying for a moment.

'Hey! Hey, you!' called Daichi as he leaned over the body, trying to desperately remember how the man's name sounded. Calling him as 'Naruto's dad' was overdoing it even at such situation, but to his bad luck, it was the only word that flashed in his mind now. 'Are you all right? I didn't want to hurt you… hey!' Oh, he was breathing. Thank gods. You saved your church.

Oh gods. Those worms were making him a little nauseous. He had never been very partial to non-arthropod, invertebrate animals, much less when they came dye-tye range of color. Partial or not, they were rather fascinating, and he'd just stayed looking at them for several seconds until something got in between him and the blinding lights that were causing his retina to produce legless creatures straight from the 70's, immediately putting an end to the show. He blinked up at the older man. His eyes were black, not brown as he'd initially thought, and from this angle he could actually tell the faint yellowish edges of the bruise on the man's temple. It was a little painful-looking piece of trivia.

Speaking of trivia, when the man spoke to him, he tried to get up, only to find it wasn't such a good idea, immediately hissing and taking a hand to the back of his head.

'…ow.'

Pain.

Daichi blinked, noticing the gesture. It seemed that there was no blood pooling around the head so it wasn't that bad.

'Are you all right?' he asked out of the need to do something 'Can you get up? Should I call the ambulance?'

'…what happened?' the blond asked a little disorientedly , blinking up at the older man in confusion. He looked down at his hand, there didn't seem to be any blood on it, but the back of his head ached in big flashing neon signs. Without waiting for an answer or thinking about it, he grabbed at the man's shoulder, pulling himself up by force while the other hand pressed at the spot to try and calm the throbbing.

The redhead grunted at becoming the support, but said nothing about it. He was about to offer him a hand, but if that worked for him, then it was fine.

'It seems… that I pushed you to the ground.' he said uneasily 'I'm sorry about that. Didn't mean to do any harm.'

'I'm okay, I think.' Minato could have told him it was probably his own fault, but he'd rather the man think he had pushed him that Minato went a little too happy with his pills every now and then. Once he was sure he wasn't going to fall down back on his back like a pancake, he retrieved his hand and rubbed at his head a bit more, looking again at the appendage. Still throbbing insistently, but no blood. '…is Temari okay?' he was sure he heard her cry… unless he had imagined that. He hoped he hadn't scared her, her father didn't look exactly fine.

Much to his beliefs, the girl seemed to be glued to the glass on the door, observing everything that was happening outside the car. Daichi looked at her and turned his gaze toward the blond, his features hardening.

'Yes, she is.' he muttered as he gave a one last glance toward the whole body of the blond. No injuries. 'Now, if you are all right, I will be going.'

He gave the man an incredulous look, features hardening immediately afterwards.

'Jesus, why do you keep acting like this?' Minato asked, in a disbelieving tone, one hand still on his back as he used the other to push himself up. He did it too fast and nearly fell back down in a fresh wave of vertigo, but it passed quickly enough he only stumbled a little before readying himself. 'I'm offering you my help, and you know what? When you need it, you need to take it or it doesn't work!' he wasn't sure that sentence made the right kind of sense. In fact, he was sure it would have made his literary teacher at high school weep. It only irritated him more, and making a frustrated gesture towards the shorter man didn't really help.

'Whatever. I can tell you don't want to change, but I really would like to think this isn't you putting your pride in front of your kids, because that's be just- you are so-' he took a deep breath, pushing his hands in his pockets when he realized they were shaking again, blue eyes glaring at the older man in a sudden bout of frustration. 'Whatever. Do whatever the hell you want. I just hope it will work better for you than it has so far.'

He turned around, quickly walking towards the door that lead outside, knowing how wrong that had sounded and that you didn't just say these things to someone of Sabaku's temper, but he actually meant it. He hoped it would work out all right, for his children's' sake, if nothing else.

'I don't need your pity!' was shouted back at him as Daichi turned around to actually wave to him with his fist. The words touched the nerve, they really did, but he was far from admitting that. 'You have the nerve to tell me what to do! I don't need anyone, I never did!' And with that, he marched away to the car as quickly as he could. When he went in, he didn't even put on the seat belts and bolted with the car right away, ignoring the alarmed squeal of Temari who also didn't have her belts on. The car, despite being old and used, jumped out of the way like a racing car, venting the man's anger the best it could. For a long time only tense silence hanged in the air, but when the vehicle stopped at first red lights, the girl finally managed to look at him without fear.

'Daddy… you're going to kill us.' she muttered almost under her breath. He looked at her with a sharp glance and tched.

'Shut up.' he said and once the light changed to the green one, he pushed the gas pedal as hard as he could. He was too blinded to think about law and police, and much to his bad day, nobody actually chased him against this. What was this girl, his child, his firstborn saying? Wasn't it obvious that it won't happen? Because it won't.

It won't.

When he parked near the house, the door from Takaoka's family opened, showing the old man in different kind of pants and still the same shirt, drinking something that looked like vodka, but smelled of rum.

'Oi, Sabaku! My payment! Remember! My rent!' he passed by him without even giving him a glance. Payment his ass. Like if he didn't have any other expenses to put his money into. Drink yourself to memory loss, drunkard. The silence in his house was almost deafening. Who would have thought that without all of his kids it would make such a difference.

'Temari…' he started, but the girl had only looked up at him with stubborn face and ran into her own room without even taking off her shoes. 'Temari!'

'No!' she squealed and closed the door. Probably from her closet as there were no doors to the sleeping rooms. He decided to leave her alone.

The rest of the remaining night he spent on dialing up the number of the phone to Yashamaru and repeating the same message again and again.

'Click! Hello, it's Yashamaru! I can't currently talk to you, so please, leave the message…'

'Yashamaru. Pick up the phone. Pick up the phone. I know you're there. Pick it up. Pick it up right now. Yashamaru…' The man in the other room just smiled and turned the volume down. Good luck on trying to become a broken record, Daichi. You're only two third up there. Then he switched the light off and went out of the room.

#+#+#+#+#+#

By the time he got home, Minato's head could have sung Bach's 5th symphony in contralto without an issue. His body also informed him that his back had valiantly taken the worst of the impact, and now his neck was a little too stiff and there was a peculiar sort of hot 'I don't like you' feeling he got from between his shoulder blades. Iruka, who had been on the living's table apparently working on homework, noticed right away when the blond took well over what was usually necessary to remove his jacket, a grimace on his face.

'Minato-san, what happened?' the young man asked, quickly walking towards him. 'I slipped on the slush and fell on my back.' he said, the lie coming from his lips so easily he didn't even have to consciously think about it.

'I hit my head and was thoroughly embarrassed, I think I've filled my quota for the day.' A head of sunflower spikes poked from the corner, giving him a reproaching look.

'You are so clumsy, daddy.'

'Yeah, I know.'

With a sigh he sat on the couch, slouching over and holding his temples in an attempt to rub the hurt away. The teen made a troubled face, hesitating a moment before reaching for the older man.

'May I…?' at Minato's blank expression (and lack of negative), he carefully brushed past the warm mess of hair and gingerly touched the sizeable bump on the back of the older man's head.

'Oh, gods!' the teen said incuriously, quickly moving towards the kitchen. Naruto climbed to his lap just as quickly, a little hand reaching to touch the egg-sized knob on his father's face with a decided lack of gentleness, the older man pulling away immediately. '_Lisku_, that hurts!'

'Sorry!' Naruto immediately withdrew his hand, giving his father a curious look. When no further complaining came, he snuggled into his lap, leaning to rest his head against his chest. Minato automatically pulled him closer, one hand stroking the boy's arm. It took Iruka a moment to get back with bunch of ice neatly wrapped in a cloth napkin, receiving a tired, thankful smile in return.

'Thank you, Iruka-kun. And thanks for coming on such short notice, I know it's exam season…'

'No trouble at all, I managed to get quite a bit done while in here, and there's better light to study-' he blushed a little, as if he had said something he hadn't meant to, but Minato's head hurt a little too much to think about it right now 'Did you get what you were looking for?'

'No, not really.' leaning back on the couch, he softly, carefully pressed the ice to bruise, hating the feeling but knowing damage control was needed. 'They didn't have the textbook after all.'

'Oh, that's too bad… I'll let you know if I can find it, maybe my school's library has it and will let me borrow.' Sometimes he felt bad about lying to nice people like that.

'I'd appreciate that, Iruka-kun.' And his phone? As Sabaku has so kindly pointed out for him, he could call him any time without need to see him. And considering he didn't have anything to tell him, he didn't think he'd say anything at all.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Beep…. Beep… Beep. Click!

Daichi woke up with a startle as the ending song of the telephone's battery started and turned the thing off. It seemed that somehow he fell asleep during the calling and now his back hurt from sleeping on the chair. Also, he drooled on his chin. Gods. It was good that he actually had the charger – or that Kankuro actually got it from his friend. Who knew how would he move on without any means of communication with outside world at such times. Though, it didn't mean much; he couldn't contact Yashamaru now even if he tried for so long. He closed his eyes in dizziness. It was three a.m. nearing the morning and he felt like if he hadn't slept at all.

At least he hoped his kids had a good rest. Now, that they didn't go to school, they had all the time on the world to be like that. He walked up to his daughter's room and sighed in relief. In the end, the girl decided to go out of the closet and went to bed. She was fully clothed and it was as unhygienic as it could be, but he couldn't blame her. Everything that happened could take a toll on everyone. He leaned over her and stroked the blonde hair for a moment. Guilty washed over him like a shower spray.

He really didn't manage to do well even with one kid. Maybe he deserved what happened to him. Maybe that was better for all of them. He couldn't really give Gaara what he needed and he couldn't provide the strength Kankuro wanted from him. What a waste of life for them… But the question was, could Yashamaru do it? He knew he loved his sister, so he had to love her kids. He couldn't be sure, but at least he hoped he didn't treat them worse than her. After all, it wasn't the kids' fault they owned 50% of his genotype. But then, Yashamaru could never really be trusted with anything.

With a frown, Daichi got up and connected the phone to the charger. After a few minutes of silent sitting and staring into the darkness, he resumed calling the answering machine. After some time, Yashamaru will have to pick up. Or at least he hoped so. It was his only clue now. He instinctively grabbed himself by the side as he always did when he had Gaara with himself. Somehow, it felt more calming, even if by no means more reassuring. He didn't get much of sleep this night.

He next morning was an exception from what he usually had. Normally, the house would be full of chattering and kids crying, being too slow or too fast and being too loud in general, even if they really couldn't compare to the kid of Mr. Uzumaki. With only Temari who, even if she still had a very negative mood toward him, kept on being punctual and obedient despite anything. So he was more than on time when it came to setting off and this really should add something to his mood.

Only it didn't, because it all felt so alien at the same time and when he had no one to hold by hand to the car, because Temari used to walk on her own, he felt like if some part of his cold, unemotional heart was stolen. So, instead, he grabbed onto Temari who looked up at him strangely, but didn't oppose. She also needed some support from him, after all. Only this time he couldn't tell if it was her needing him more or the other way around.

In the car the silence had almost made him hear unreasonable ringing, so he tried to make conversation with the girl. But after asking for her health and the grades he ran out of the subjects he could talk about with her without making the atmosphere queasy, so he gave up. And it was good, in some way at least, because being distracted by the talk he had almost took the route toward Kankuro's school. Now, wasn't that nice.

But then, in silence he couldn't help but remember the argument from the previous morning he had with Kankuro over the game on the cell phone and he couldn't help but feel even worse. For gods' sake, why was he always so riled up about trivial things? He should have let him play on the goddamned phone. Naruto's dad would've let him.

Now he was feeling even worse as he remembered how the man walked up to him yesterday on the parking lot and seemed to take the news so much worse than he would have expected of him. More, than he would have expected of himself. His kids were gone and the one who was getting worried was that Uzumaki guy and he was going to work and driving a car like if nothing had happened. Wasn't that the highest idea of luxurious absurd? But then again, it's not like reality left him with much choice. Kids or not, he had to earn money to survive. So he parked the car, grabbed Temari by hand and went to his own office, ten minutes earlier than everyone else. To survive.

At the first in the afternoon, the door to his office opened , anteceded by a soft quick knocking. He was about to make a scatting response at the lack of choice given if to let the interrupter interrupt him, but at the sight of long black hair his teeth froze together.

'Oh, Mr. Sabaku' said the long haired man in a genuine tone, sounding quite surprised 'You're in? I thought you went missing since I didn't see your arrival.'

Now, he had a great right to be surprised, okay.

'No, sir, I came earlier.' he said, shooting a glance toward the – empty now – corner he made for his child. Somehow, his so very lazy instinct worked and made him send Temari for a cup of coffee to the vending machine. Gods bless obsolete instinct. 'Managed to set out before the first traffic.'

'Oh, is that so?' said the man, his elegant brows arching a bit higher with still the same wide smile that spread on the features of the man every time troubles were coming. Which was good, because the only time it was worse was when he wasn't smiling 'And there I thought such things didn't happen as you are rarely on time… couldn't this happen more often, Mr. Sabaku?'

'I'm afraid it's not exactly a matter I can control.' said Daichi with a polite smile, looking at his feet. His eyes caught a glimpse of the man licking his lips and it was enough to make his stomach churn. 'But I will do my best to arrive on time.'

'Oh, I'm sure you will.' said the man with a smile and finally turned to leave 'Work hard, Daichi, I need to know what I'm paying you for.'

'Of course, sir.' With that, the door opened and closed and Daichi sighed with relief. Only to jump up from his seat like burned a second later. The scream that was uttered at other side of the door was something he hadn't heard since he stopped watching scary movies at midnight. Which meant a long time.

'WHOSE FUCKING BRAT IS THAT?' And now he felt like if the blood froze in his veins. Temari.

With one swift move he was at the door, opening it while he was crossing himself. And as he did that, it seemed that really, praying was something he needed to do now. In the hall, no further than five steps from his office, stood his boss. And it wouldn't be anything bad with that, if only the lovely lilac wasn't now sprayed all with brown cappuccino stains, no less than his own as the cup laid on the floor a breath away along with his very own daughter.

Pretty scared daughter. Just like everyone else in the nearby offices now (which didn't stop them from peeking out and looking at the scene, of course).

'I ASKED WHOSE BRAT IS THAT!' roared Orochimaru, his pleasant mood changed into something between 'I'm going to eat you' and 'I spit fire and snakes'. Daichi moves his mouth breathlessly, but his voice didn't come out. He just couldn't move from the spot he was in, even if he was pretty sure that what he saw was just the end of his dearest daughter's life. Which was quite pathetic, as he realized later (but not now). 'WELL? Doesn't anyone want to admit for breaking the rules? Who brought you here, brat?'

Temari had only looked at him wide-eyed, trembling from fear as she was sure she had never seen anything that scary in her life. Only a moment before she was carrying the cup of fresh cappuccino to her daddy, happy enough that she didn't spill even the single drop on her way and then that man just had to come out in the middle of nowhere and bump right onto her.

'Da… dy…' she muttered, almost paralyzed with fear 'Daddy!...' Which was said so quietly that even Daichi, who stood just as shocked as her a few meters away, didn't hear her call.

'WHAT? Can't you speak?' shouted Orochimaru, attracting even more attention by passing people, making even workers from the third floor coming to see what's going on 'Do you have any idea what you did? It's Versace, you little snot! It cost me half of my salary, and that means that even if I sold you, you wouldn't be worth a button on its sleeve!'

'I… I didn't!...' said Temari, shaking her head as she tried to get away 'It was… an accident…'

'Do you think that the fact it was an accident can take the stains off?' continued Orochimaru, but as the girl only curled up from himself, he reached out for one of her ponytails and shook her violently 'You obviously don't know the way this world works!'

'Daddy!' squeaked the girl from pain. And then, something in Daichi had snapped.

'PUT YOUR HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER!' he roared so loudly that even people who didn't pay attention yet turned their heads toward him. And then his fist met the white skin of Orochimaru's cheek.

It happened so fast, that only after he kneeled in front of Temari and hugged her tightly, he understood what he did. He had just punched his boss across the face. Oh gods. He had just punched-

'Sabaku.' he heard a vile hiss behind his back 'In my office. Without the brat. Now!' And he didn't even manage to let go of his breath as the quick steps on the marbled floor quieted down with a loud slam of the door. The silence around him was overwhelming. Oh gods. He had just punched his boss across the face. Oh gods.

'Temari' he muttered with numb mouth, barely feeling his tongue as he slowly let go of the blonde girl 'Temari… go to my office and… pack my things. Can you do that for daddy?'

The girl looked up at him, her eyes still wide from fear, but she nodded hesitantly. She wasn't sure if she could pack Daichi's things, but something deep inside her told her, that she should say that she could, even if she really couldn't. Daichi nodded back at her, looking as pale as death.

'Good. Then go and do that. Daddy will be right back.' and he left her alone, in silent hall as he stood up and followed his boss to his private office.

It was big, warm and almost cozy, just as he remembered it from the day he went to put in his curriculum vitae. The plants hanged low from the ceiling, only a bit longer than then and the bright light from the window shone on everything with perfect contrast, making it look like the room from the house magazine. The only visible difference was the big terrarium standing on one of the chests to his left. He was pretty sure that last time he was there he saw an albino snake there. Now, there were three of them in. Orochimaru with his elegant hairstyle and Versace suit suited to it like a second skin. Orochimaru with reddened from anger face and with suit for thousands of dollars stained with cheap coffee did not. Even if he wiped off some of the stains with wet cloth now.

'Mr. Sabaku, Sabaku, Daichi.' he started with a tone that was probably meant to be sleek and calm, but sounded more like a bomb that was desperately trying to hold up before blowing off into the seven hells 'I wanted to be nice to you… I know you're a hard working man… I really appreciate what you can do and what you did for the company… but…'

A pause. Breath for calming himself down. It worked. At least for Orochimaru. At the sight of the man slowly going back to his smooth criminal form he felt his own anger getting back to his veins.

'…after what's happened today I don't think I have to pronounce It for you. A child? In my office?'

The snakes? On my plane? – thought Daichi, internally mimicking the tone of the voice, even if he didn't do anything. Only his face grew more disbelieving and a little more humored.

'I already said that I don't tolerate anything that has below twenty years old. Especially not in the place of work. This is not a family friendly company and you knew it from beginning, Sabaku.' he stopped and bore his yellow eyes in him, waiting probably for the response. But Daichi didn't nod to that. Regardless, Orochimaru swept his tongue across the lips and continued.

'I know your financial status.' he said, drawling out the tones like usual, his bad mood obviously washing away, even if his suit was still polka dotted in brown 'That's why I won't charge you for even simple cleaning, that would come out as extra for the expensive brand. But I can't let you and your scandalous behavior ruin the name of my company anymore.'

A pause, click of tongue against the teeth. At this point Daichi already saw red. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he did.

'To make long story short – Daichi, you're fired. Go and pack your things, I don't want to see you-'

'No!'

Orochimaru stopped and rose his eyebrows slowly.

'No?' he asked in disbelieving tone.

'No!' repeated Daichi a little quieter, darting his eyes toward the plants and the snakes, searching for something, anything that would give him the plan he didn't make before as his brain just didn't catch on.

'No! Because… because I quit!' Now that was reasonable. Didn't change a thing, but still. Orochimaru looked at him for a moment in silence, then turned around to sit on his wheely chair.

'Of course. You quit. So, you have one day to remove your things from your office-'

'No!' said Daichi, crossing the distance between the door he was glued to and the desk at which Orochimaru sat. His fists banged on it with so much anger that even the lamp jumped up at the physical reaction.

'I said that I quit.' He breathed, looking the man in the eye 'Therefore, give me my money.'

There was a moment of silence. Then, Orochimaru smiled.

'Oh my, Daichi. I thought we knew each other closer than that-'

'Don't give me that bullshit!' shouted the redhead as he fisted the collar of his suit. He was fired, he quite, he didn't have to care anymore 'What you did made me vomit for ages and for that alone I deserve the indemnity! You-!'

'Oh no, Sabaku, you don't give me that!' was hissed at him as his hands were simply thrown away, pushing him a step back. The man stood up and leaned over his desk, letting his black hair fall across his shoulders and face 'You don't deserve a single thing, even if you worked under me for a few years. It's the Sound company and with agreeing to my contract you agreed to my rules! Don't forget about that.'

'We will see about that.' said Daichi, curling his hands into fists one more time 'When I will leak everything to press, how you treat your co-workers. I will get my money then.'

'Daichi, you're only a mere pawn. Your word against mine, the main chief of the Sound Company, means nothing.' answered Orochimaru with the smile, relaxed and calm 'Think about it. I have money, power and connections. You have no money, no power and nobody in your office likes you, including you. Your word against mine. I have everything. You have nothing.'

The smile widened, showing the snow white teeth of a noble who never had to eat dust.

'Daichi.' he said in the smooth, exalted tone 'You and that kid of yours with genes of your funny pitiful blonde wife, who gave birth to such a clumsy girl - are nothing. I don't have to pay you anything.'

And Daichi's vision turned black.

The next thing he saw was Orochimaru up the wall with his throat crushed between his very own hands, looking at him with surprise.

'You… you!...' he breathed out, feeling how his fingers sunk into the white skin, and oh gods, it felt wonderful 'You will pay me, you hear me? You will pay me everything you owe to me, even if I had to rip it out of your ass!' Yellow eyes slowly turned flavescent. The moment he sat in his car along with all his office junk he had, he never felt more free in his life. Finally, he had time to think about himself.

'Hey, Temari.' he muttered to the girl as she sat down beside him, holding onto his small box of things 'What do you say about a visit at Happy Meal? No coffee, I promise.'

The girl looked up at him with unhappy face.

'That man yelled at you.' she said quietly 'What about Kankuro and Gaara?'

Daichi smiled sadly.

'Next time we will go there all together.' he said. And gods, he hoped he was right 'Don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault.'

The girl looked up at him, then down at her knees as she played with one of her ponytails, tugging it a bit.

'Can I eat whole hamburger?'

'Even two.'

The girl hugged him in response. Daichi smiled a bit wider, stroking her back and funny haircut. And who said that money didn't give happiness. Now, that he got at least that much, he was going to use the first part to whatever he couldn't give his kids – well, one kid now – earlier (but he will make it up to all of them, he had to).

'Then let's go.' And they went.


	24. 24: Xerox

Minato stared at the phone in the kitchen. It was the line phone, the black phone. The One Phone to Call them All. It was the phone he used for long distance calls, which were the only ones he bothered making, and if it were up to him, he would get rid of the thing completely and just use some software to go through it. But of course Jiraiya-sensei couldn't be bothered to learn to use Skype, Ibiki never had time to sit down in his computer for longer than mailing him a billion of fwd. jokes, and his field researcher couldn't exactly be calling him on the cell phone all the time. That's why he only made calls with people he knew, been if the line would appear as a private number to anyone who bothered to try it.

That's why he only made calls with people he knew, been if the line would appear as a private number to anyone who bothered to try it. It was the phone he wanted dot grab and call Ibiki with. It was the phone he shouldn't touch for those things.

His eyes moved nervously towards the clock, wincing at the fact it was only four thirty in the morning. Not because he hadn't slept, because he had gone to bed at ten out of sheer tiredness and then just woken up an hour ago, so he had enough sleep. As far as 'enough' sleep amounted to him, at least. The problem with the hour was that it meant it was 8:30 PM in Fire country. Perfectly acceptable timeframe to call his favorite shady editor and ask him if he could ask any of his shady friends (because the man obviously had quite a few over Wind country) if they'd be kind enough to locate two missing kids and whomever was the bastard that had taken them away. Then break of all of said bastard's ribs and leave him for to police to find him a new one.

Only he couldn't. And he couldn't because (and now you, the person who has it all) for a moment he thought he'd start crying just out of how frustrated he felt. It wasn't even that he was sad (well, just a little). He was just nervous and edgy and usually crying made him feel a bit better, which was so utterly childish it made him feel sick. He couldn't believe Sabaku had rejected his help like that, when it was so obvious no one else could (or would) offer it. He couldn't believe it because thanks to that the kids were somewhere with whomever the hell decided to get their Christmas shopping a little earlier and book a redhead and a brunet.

What did the man have to lose? If anything it would make Minato feel better- and there it went again. That's' what bothered him. That Sabaku had been so right. He was worried about the kids. But what drove him up the wall was that *he* was worried. He did want reassurement. He wanted to know that Gaara and Kankuro and Temari were all right, because if they weren't, it meant that *he* had done something wrong, had failed to be convincing enough, persuasive enough, good enough. He hadn't even stopped to think about how the man felt.

Which, he had to admit, he was pretty entitled to after the way the man acted towards him. Only that being justified didn't make him feel any better at all. He didn't want to think the other man acted that way because maybe that was how he dealt with the situation, the same way that Minato had dealt with his own by all too happily letting Jiraiya and Ibiki sort it out for him. That would justify the other instead, so he wasn't gonna.

And that's why he was here, lying awake at four-something in the morning while nursing a still sore bump and without a clue as to what he could do. He COULD call Ibiki and ask him to help him with this. The man had enough contacts that Minato was sure he'd be able to find the kids sooner than the police could, especially if whoever had them had left the city already. Only he didn't think he should, because if he brought Ibiki into this, he'd ask him why was he so interested into this matter and who the hell Sabaku was and how they had met and he didn't want to explain at all. Also, how would he explain the father what he'd done? Oh, yeah, that would go great, he could tell right away.

He COULD call Sabaku and try to talk to him and try to convince him to let him help. But then he'd have to explain Sabaku how exactly could he help.

'Oh, I know this guy, his past is the sort of thing everyone asks and no one gets told, you know, he knows people.' then wink meaningfully. Yeah, fantastic. He'd be lucky if the man didn't put a restriction order after that. He COULD hire a detective and find out what the hell had happened, but he already knew how private eye's worked. The man or woman would want to know why was he looking for missing kids not his own. He had the feeling 'I'm just worried and I don't think I can sleep well until I know nothing bad happened to them' wouldn't be very convincing.

Or he could just sit here stalling until it was late enough he was sure he couldn't call anywhere and that he should start preparing his son's breakfast, and then he could sit and fight with his book, which he kind of needed top support himself and his son, and then he'd have to go to the uni to fill in his work that he kind of needed for some stability.

Yeah, that sounded like a plan. He couldn't afford to meddle into this, not if it would put either Naruto or himself in danger. And besides, he wasn't a professional. The police had a lot more chances to finding the kids than Minato snooping around. In the hypothetical case they were looking. Supposing that Sabaku had contacted them, that is. And if they were abducted, why didn't' Sabaku ask you about it. Or the police? That was kind of weird, considering he had recently shown up in their lives, the kids trusted him, and that he had permission to take Gaara home, in fact it was kind of- Stop, stop, stop, stop.

Because if the situations were reverse, the redhead would be the first you'd suspect of, simply out of opportunity and closeness, or not? But he wasn't Sabaku. He didn't do that much crazy thinking yet. Not so much of it. Except the days his brain ran ahead without permission and absolutely terrified him with what it could come up with. Maybe he knows who took them Maybe he sold them Maybe the kids are valued in thousand with some insurance and when they turn up dead, Sabaku's financial troubles will be ov-

'Oh, God!' he jumped off the couch as if it burned, absolutely appalled (and terrified) of what he was thinking. No, this was just- just paranoia. He had enough to spare. His sensei was right, a writer's mind was a burden more often than not. And besides, Sabaku loved his kids. He was sure… Reasonably sure he wouldn't do anything to hurt them. Because the man sure as hell didn't seem to register what he did when he yelled at them as hurting them. No, he couldn't meddle into this. He had already been quite clearly rebuked. Sabaku might need his help, but he sure as hell didn't want it. He just hoped the kids were all right Actually, what he hoped was that Sabaku would get his head out of his ass and call him. Anything for an excuse so he could get back into this.

Sadly, as much as Minato was right, such thing as using telephone was far off on the list of Daichi. After the visit at Happy Meal, where, for a change, he also ordered himself a proper dish on his own (which didn't have any special taste – to him all hamburgers at fast food stations had one extra salty form – but the fact it was a warm meal in the middle of the day did it for him properly), the redhead started making a checklist of the things that needed the urgent payment.

After a thoughtful munching on the ketchuped fries Temari didn't want to eat after drinking a big portion of orange juice (he didn't let her have cola as he was sure that unhealthy dish should have always at least one thing that's not harmful to health) he decided that all in all, the only thing that didn't go wrong on him yet was his car and that he wanted to keep it that way. That's why, after throwing the trash to the trash bin, they went to the nearest gas station and filled the tank to the brim.

Which was a devastating choice as most of what he had had to go for that. As far as things went though, he was sure it was a right thing to do. After that, they went back home and slept until the sun rose up and high. Thanks to that, the first thing Daichi did was jumping out of the bed in panic and searching blindly for his watch he didn't take off his hand last evening.

Only after he calmed he realized he didn't really have to get up at all – his work was done for and Temari was forbidden to go to school until his senses would give him a signal it was safe to let her go there ('never' sounded good enough considering that the moment when his other kids would go back to him was just as unclear).

Seeing how she slept beside him through the whole time spoke louder than anything about the stress she had to go through. After a short battle between his own thoughts the one with a nice emotional side won, and Daichi went out to the cheap market to but some decent food. Once he was go back, Temari was already up and only a few moments before crying, as he forgot to leave her any note as where he was going to.

'I was only at the shop.' he said as he hugged her, feeling how her body trembled 'I wouldn't leave you, you know that.'

The girl nodded, but she didn't stop hugging him either way. Only when he finally ordered her to dress up as she was walking with naked feet on the cold floor she let go of him. He had to be more careful in the future. Good lessons were taught lessons after all. With those thoughts he spent another few minutes frying eggs, making cereal and boiling water for the tea. When he was done, the table looked as nice as it never did, knowing the fact when they came to this flat they were already quite poor. The fact that he wore one of his working suits for it also helped with the atmosphere.

And it all went nice and optimistic – he gave Temari her portion, served himself the tea that tasted like tea and even let the radio play some nice uplifting song; the food was tasty, the temperature was not very low and the weather was turning into sunny. It went – until, right in the middle of the bite, the girl completely broke into tears, stunning him with the burning tea close to his lips and a fork taken upward in the other hand.

'What's wrong?' he asked, dumbfounded as he finally managed to tear the cup off his lips 'Temari?'

'No…' said Temari, hiccupping as she shook her head in the protest 'It's just that I thought i-it would be nice if Ka-ankuro and Gaara could be here…' That immediately damaged the atmosphere at the table.

'Just eat your eggs, Temari.' said Daichi, backing up to drinking the rest of his tea.

'B-but…'

'Eat your stupid eggs!'

After that, there were no more protests, even if all he could hear for the rest of the meal were muted sniffs and sobs. This didn't make him feel any better, especially with the guilt it provided. There was really nothing else he could do. Yashamaru didn't pick up the phone, the police didn't contact him – and he doubted they would do that – he didn't know where the man was to go and take the kids back and he didn't have the slightest idea about his whereabouts. He could be in the building nearby or at the borders of the country all the same now.

The last thought was especially unbearable. He couldn't even begin to think about how would it be if he would never see them again – but what didn't happen didn't matter yet and all in all, there was still the matter of taking it to the court. After getting the right judgment, Yashamaru will have to give them back no matter what, and with the restraining order he could feel at least a bit safer. And speaking of that, he had to get the proper lawyer.

'Temari, hurry up.' he muttered around the mouthful of eggs 'We have things to do.'

And who knew, maybe with money he had, he could buy even something better than the freebie from the state. At the lawyer's office, his thoughts went through a proper verification.

'Only that much?' said the lawyer, looking at everything he had – and actually an amount he hadn't seen since a very long amount of time 'Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Sabaku, I'm afraid that even if it wasn't for the circumstances, I wouldn't be able to accept this sum, even if I'm the cheapest one in this district…'

'The circumstances?' said Daichi, looking at him with a light frown. As far as he knew, his circumstances weren't anything special, despite maybe, the fact that he was not fighting with mother of the kids but their uncle 'What about them?'

'The date of the hearing.' said the man with the hair geled so smoothly they almost looked like a skin colored on the blinking color 'Mr. Sabaku, I believe you know that such things as lawyering take time, you have to get to know with the law, with the documents-'

'The date?' asked the redhead, frowning even more. The words the man was sputtering now were absurd, he had the deadline by the end of the year – which was at least in two months 'What's wrong with the date?' The man looked back at him, then rose the paper of the monition, showing it to him.

'Nothing's wrong with it.' he said with prim tone, pointing at the small numbers at the top of it 'Only that it starts the day after tomorrow. Nobody is going to be able to get ready in such a short time, even if you paid him loads of money…'

'What?' shouted Daichi, getting up from his cozy maroon armchair, almost knocking off the bottle with ink that was used for decorative writing on special papers 'What do you mean 'the day after tomorrow'? That's… that's in two days! There's no way it can be right!' Because he was just fired from work… and he had no money on account… and the house… gods, the house! He had to pay the rent! He was not suited to fight for rights to the children at the given moment!

'I did not know about that!' he yelled, banging his fist against the delicate surface of the not so delicate desk 'I demand postponement! How is this even possible?'

'Postponement, ah yes…' said the man, looking visibly troubled as he smoothed his hair even more by a careful stroke. Daichi wondered how it was possible that the shiny mass of black didn't leave the stains on his hands 'The closest possible date is in June in three years. There was rearrangement of the cases due the latest political affair, so…' Daichi paled.

'Three years? But that… no…' he muttered as he sat down on weak legs, feeling how his skin became at the same time chilling and clammy. If he would wait three years then it would mean that Yashamaru would probably never show up in front of him before that and by then the kids wouldn't even remember they had the father or how he did look like at all 'I can't… Is there any other way to move that date?'

'And do you have money, Mr. Sabaku?' The rest was silence.

'Come on, Temari.' he muttered ghastly as he walked out of the office 'We're going home.'

The girl nodded to him, bored by the lack of any activities she should do and saddened by the events at the breakfast. Once they were back home, Daichi tried knocking to the door of owner of the building, Takaoka, but nobody answered him. The guilt slowly started turning into despair.

#+#+#+#+#+#

The blond had never been happier to go to colleague than that week. It probably had to do with the fact that he had become used to so much chaos around him silence usually left him with too much time to think. And in Minato's dictionary, time to think equaled with time to worry. He hadn't been able to so much as touch the files where he kept what he'd written. He'd attempted to poke around what he'd printed to have a look, actually tangible words always more helpful to him than the ones on the screen when it came to proofreading, but he couldn't concentrate on what he read. He'd only managed to fix a couple of grammar mistakes and how he'd phrased the odd sentence, and he still had half a book to go through and an ending he abhorred the more he looked at it.

He was probably being too hard on himself, but he really didn't like the ending. It had been over three years since the last time he had published anything, and if this sequel sold well- Everything depend on it. Ibiki said it would be a success, and the man certainly had a lot more experience eon the matter than he did, not to mention a profitable busyness to attest to. He also liked Minato, which made the blonde feel not confidant enough when it came to the man's words. That Jiraiya agreed with him when he told him that whatever he wrote would be a commercial success made him feel even worse- his uncle had been on a tour for the past half year and then he'd taken a leave for a couple months and still was on the 'research material' phase. Minato hadn't sent him anything besides the first couple chapters of what he had written, and even if the older man had told him it looked good, he got the feeling he hadn't read it at all, because Minato had read it too and it sucked. Not that he had rewritten, but from the half onwards it just. Declined. Badly. Unless he found something good enough, interesting enough, his life would be a sinking ship again. And he wasn't sure how could handle the stress of a normal office job. Even if his uncle did want to support both him and Naruto- and again off he went. He should think of other things. Like- oh, lets' say, wherever Gaara and Kankuro might be. Being sold off somewhere. Having their organs removed and sold on the black market. Getting shipped to other countries like Thunder, where they'd get a nice price for such fair-skinned little kids, especially Gaara-

'Here you go, sir.' The waitress deposited the cup in front of him with carefully measured dip selected to offer a privileged amount of cleavage from her low curt shirt, dark colored lips up in a smile. 'Anything else I can do for you?'

Unfortunately for her, Minato was more interested in the cup she had just brought him than the ones in her shirt. He looked down at the pale brown of the mixture in the heavily decorated cup, nearly weeping in relief. He loved these amazingly huge sort of mugs. He never seemed to be able to find the right size or model when he went to the store.

'No, thank you miss. Nothing for now.'

That shade of blond wasn't common at all in this sort of heights. She'd even discreetly checked when he'd made the order- it looked natural. No different colored roots or anything. She wondered if the curtains matched the drapes- And those eyes! She departed with another smile and a little swing to her hips that made the occupants of other tables turn a bit in her direction. Minato remained focused on his Chai tea. He hadn't slept much in the past half week, not since the man had announced he'd been moving. Tobirama had told him it was too soon to be changing prescriptions and that he should wait at least another week before he started thinking of getting some sleeping pills for it. He would have taken another valium, but before he'd gone meet the man at the parking lot of his workplace, he had actually sat down and counted how many of the blue pills he had left- and the recount had been far from encouraging. He had exactly seven pills left, no more and no less. Whatever sort of prescription he got, he was reasonably sure it wouldn't be the magical V pill again, so he couldn't just keep popping them the way he had whenever he felt like it, a bit of rationing would have to take place. So now he was trying to lower his caffeine intake, and since decaffeinated coffee tasted like weird fake coffee to him, he was down to alternatives. Addicting alternatives that tasted like a blend of nutmeg, with something tangy-sweet and cinnamon and clove and were so, so awesome he thought he might have to kiss Chouza next time he saw him for having mentioned the blend to him. Or maybe get him some coupons for that barbeque shop he liked to go with his friends. With a little sigh, he leaned back in the comfortably plush seat he'd chosen closing his eyes and just keeping the hot mug between his hands to warm them- it hurt a bit, but with the terrible circulation he normally had, it seemed to be the only way to keep them at normal temperature- and let himself gradually relax. That's why he liked this little coffee shop. Good prices, lack of loud music and close enough to a Starsbucks that pretty much ensured he would never have to fight anyone for where to sit or share a table. He was quite comfortable in his little corner with the other six or seven patrons far enough they'd let him concentrate on looking over what they'd be looking at today.

Just as soon as he finished his cup.

#+#+#+#+#+#

The day was nearing to an end as Daichi kept on going through the files and documents he made ready for the court – and he had finally selected the ones that were artistically stained with maroon blood. They looked bad, exactly like papers from the scene of murder in the movies, so that meant they were completely out of use. He couldn't – just couldn't bring such papers to the place, it would be more than suspicious. It would be down pointing at him as the prime suspect of whatever domestic abuse he was supposed to make here. But with such a short date there was no way he could remake the documents again with all stamps and signs again. It was technically impossible.

'Temari, I'm going out to copy the papers.' he muttered to the girl, who sat curled in the sofa and listened to the evening fairy tale on radio 'Don't open up the door to anyone, even if they'd said it's Santa Clause himself. Do you understand?'

Temari nodded, looking a bit apathetic and curled up under the blanket he brought her. Daichi sighed and stroked her head briefly as he left the place.

'I'll be back in twenty minutes.' he muttered, sincerely hoping he will be. The sole copying didn't take long, but such things were always done at work and he had no idea where he could find the closest xerography point. After running around the shops he suspected that could have the machine, and then around those he didn't think they'd do, he finally ran into Starbucks, where they told him about small point nearby the dandy tea shop – or, whatever it was supposed to be. Daichi never visited such places as the prices for normal tea were twice as high than in the cheap market and he really couldn't think about luxury. So, when he walked toward the xerography point, he didn't even look at it.

In the computer point (as it came) the temperature was twenty degrees higher than outside. And considering it was still something above zero today, that meant something. What was worst, it seemed that he went into a queue that included an old lady and a pack of college girls who had many of loose sheets with them. So he waited. And waited. And waited. And the time passed, first – five minutes, then ten… He was not going to make it in twenty minutes. Temari had to wait. And gods, was it warmer near the counter, or what?

Once he finally copied his sheets black and white(with one suspicious glare or two when it came to bloody dots) his throat was dry as the desert. And besides, he wasn't at work today, so he didn't drink coffee and he didn't buy coffee because if you didn't buy coffee at the vending machine it cost millions… He looked tentatively toward the classy tea shop (at least on the outside, it had all those decorations that made it look similar to plaza from the eighteenth century).

They should have vending machines there, shouldn't they? Or maybe the prices of black coffee weren't that insane, that place was close to Starbucks after all (but he hated starbucks. It just wasn't his brand of lie that could be named coffee). It didn't hurt to check, especially as now he had some small amount of money on him. He ventured into the shop, intimidated by the atmosphere that was far from normal of the supermarket and looked around for vending machines. Just as his luck showed – there were none.

He decided to walk up to the counter and ask for the menu, as it seemed to be place classy enough to have one for drinks and he had almost tripped on one of the chairs on his way.

'I'm sorry.' he muttered toward the man that sat at the table 'I didn't mean to…' But then his eye caught the glimpse of the blond and he turned his head around. Could that be?... That could be. Uzumaki. Something. The name he couldn't catch on. Coffee wasn't such a good idea after all.

He had managed to calm a good deal and consume half of his drink by the time anything shook him out of his 'rest', blue eyes opening at the sound of ceramic hitting the tiles, and he blinked around dazedly. Apparently, he wasn't the one ruining cutlery for once. There was a young man glaring at another male, and at the beginning he didn't recognize him simply because his brain kept telling him it wasn't him- because at this hour Sabaku was at work. Only that red… red… hair. That shade of brick dust that seemed so strange and yet so fitting, like a blend between Kankuro and Gaara's impossibly bloody red hair- yes, It was Sabaku. Minato immediately tensed, giving him a slightly panicky look. What was he supposed to do in this situation? Smile? Wave? Screech he wasn't stalking him and that he had been here well before the other had ventured in? Add a smiley face at the end of the sentence or not? In the end, he made the barest of nods in the man's direction as if to signal he recognized him, then looked down at his tea, taking another discreet sip as an excuse to avert his eyes. He looked up again, the older man still present. Maybe a gulp then. At snails peace. At least his lips would be warm now too.

The man stood at his place like stunned, which seemed to last for him at least for a minute or five. But then the blond nodded and the fear of the man making a play of twenty questions vanished. He could relax. But then, the lack of assail turned on the other feeling in him, and that was the fact that the 'unharming blond' was also 'the only known thing in this place' and he'd rather hold onto something familiar than to make an idiot out of himself in a place in which he didn't know how to behave.

So, instead of nodding back, he instantly moved forward to him, at the last steps pointing his finger at him to pinpoint clearly who he had in mind when it came to closing the distance.

'This.' he asked, steering his hand toward the cup Minato held 'How much is this?'

The younger man literally jerked back at the pointing finger, as if he had expected the redhead to punch him instead of asking him what he was drinking. He had to admit after last time and the days he'd had to replay the situation and let his paranoia add all the little threatening details it wanted, he would have at least been looking out for a slap. It took him a moment to process the fact the other was just asking him what he was drinking- well, how much was what he was drinking worth.

'I-It's $2.50.' if he'd been in a more social mood, he would have commented than by that price, he might have gotten half of it anywhere else, but right now he seemed too busy trying to see if he could break down the molecules on the back of his seat and hopefully sink into it. 'It's- I'm not sure-'

Did the man even drink anything other than pitch black coffee?

'Ah.' said Daichi, looking a bit taken aback. Only now he saw what was in the mug, but he was sure that he didn't want anything that looked like tea and smelt of cake. 'Excuse me then.'

The way man behaved was completely understandable, but yet he felt even more uneasy than when he decided to walk to him. Now he felt that the best thing would be just to walk out of this place and… But he so wanted coffee… he needed it. He had to get something that made him think better after what came onto him lately.

He walked up to the counter and started looking through the randomly left menus left on the side of it. Finally, he found black coffee without any strange adds – and that one seemed to cost a nice price. A bit higher than what he usually had but it was written it was from African seeds, so it was probably better by quality. Inside, he doubted it would have different taste for such price.

'This.' he said, pointing at the picture of the mug 'One cup. No sugar.'

Then he stood at the counter, tense, still feeling the presence of the other like a pressure of a balloon pushing at his own personal bubble. It kind of burned, but he gritted his teeth and bore it until he got his coffee. Then he sat down at the nearby free table and started sorting out the documents – he had to make sure to not mix the bloody copies with their black and white doppelgangers or it would really turn out wrong. Ah, the coffee tasted quite good. Different. It really wasn't something done from a plastic pack and dusty crumbs.

His eyes ventured to the side where the blond sat on their own, then again. It was almost like if the man had a magnet for eyes on his forehead and kept on pulling at his gaze. He did everything to look at the ceiling, then at flowers and decorations but every time he caught himself at getting back to that one table. In the end he just leaned over the papers and nailed his gaze at the writings so it wouldn't go anywhere.

Likewise the blond kept nervously looking back and forth between the papers he had hurriedly taken out as an excuse to have something to do and the man sitting just a dozen steps across of him. Suddenly he wished he were at Starsbucks- it might be filled to the brim with nervous kids on final's season, but at least Sabaku sure as hell wouldn't venture there. In fact, this little coffee shop didn't seem like his usual sort of place, either. What was Sabaku doing here, not at work, at the coffee shop Minato liked?

'Would you like another, sir?' he was shaken out of such thoughts by the appearance of the dark-haired waitress from before was back, and Minato actually frowned at the hint of lacey purple bra peeking from between the before quickly averting his eyes.

'Yes please.' he said, leaving the mug on the table for the girl to take it, his eyes studiously set on the outside of the window. 'Ah, miss?'

'Yes?' if Minato had been bothering to look at her, he might have seen her smile might as well have come with subtitles telling him to ask her when her shift ended. 'I think one of the buttons on your blouse came undone.'

There was stunned silence from the woman for several seconds. After a good number of them passed, she wordlessly reached to button them back up, then turned and left. This time, when she brought the new cup, she practically tossed it to the table. Minato might have thought it strange hadn't it been because he was busy trying to figure out why was the older man here and why did he keep looking at him. And where was Temari?

At the point when the new mug of tea was brought to Minato, Daichi was at the end of his own. He had sorted out all his papers and when he did that, he had almost downed the rest of what was left in the cup, risking burning of his throat and tongue. There was no other way to do it though – he had already wasted too much time outside. Who knew what could be happening to Temari now, when he was wasting time on drinking coffee (he hoped that she had just listened to whatever was in the radio and not went away with someone of the same skin carnation).

With one last glance toward the table where sat the blond, Daichi moved out of the cafeteria. He stopped at the door, for a moment wondering if he could ask him for money for moving the date of hearing further, but he quickly waved it off. After all he did on the parking lot – and not only then – daring to ask for such thing was the epitome of rudeness. A moment later all that could be spotted through the window glass was a quickly running man with pack of papers under his arm.

The blond looked after him with a confused expression, thoughtlessly bringing his blend to his lips and nearly burning them off. What the hell had been all of that?

When Daichi was back in his house, Temari was already asleep on the sofa. The fairy tale ended with the classic music concert, and even if it wasn't something that drove her to sleep, she was so tired she drifted away at the first tunes of Beethoven's sonata (that played as second track). Thanks to that, the comeback of Daichi was unnoticed, as well as his lateness. The redhead was more than grateful for this small gift from gods. He wanted even to pet the girl for a moment at the flicker of warmer emotions, but decided against it, as that would probably wake her up. And he wasn't such a bad father to not let the kid sleep when the situation was so stressful.

And it was probably getting even more, as he really had no idea what was going to happen now. He tried to get to Takaoka's flat again as he was back, but the door were still closed. His phone was also mute when it came to Yashamaru – the only thing he's got from it was a voice mail playing a 'Twinkle twinkle little star' to him and riled up his nerves thanks to that. When the idea of putting aside his pride and getting back to the cafeteria to beg the blond to lend him money, care or anything at all it was already five past midnight and all he could do was removing Temari from the sofa and laying with her for the rest of the night.

The luck came to him in the next morning. The first thing he did after making another breakfast (this time he just made simple sandwiches, he was sure that with all thoughts in his head he'd simply burn whatever he'd put in the stove) he went to the door that faced the door of his neighbor's (unknown anyway) and knocked on them so long, until the still sleepy Takaoka finally dragged his ass off the canopy he lied in and opened it up for him.

'What?' he had roared to his face for a very good morning. He didn't bother trying to explain the savoir vivre to him. It was a waste of time.

'The money.' he muttered and put out the packet of banknotes out of his pocket 'I have them. How much am I-'

'What? Oh no, no, no, no! You woke me up just for that? Sorry, the offer has lapsed, get out!' yelled the man with hoarse voice and swung the door to slam them on his face. Just out of the pure reflect Daichi caught them just the moment before they closed.

'What?' he asked, then put hand with the bills through the creek the doors made, especially as Takaoka kept on pushing the door still 'I said I have the money! I said I'll pay! What's the meaning of this?'

'And I said the offer is done for!' said the man and swung the door open so suddenly that Daichi almost fell right onto him – thankfully, his feet caught his balance for him before he could even think about what was happening 'Yesterday I met the client who said he'll pay me thrice your usual pay and as a proof he paid your whole debt while wearing suit from Armani! So you can eat your stinky money for all I care! You probably stole it from some good civilian anyway!'

The green bottle with alcohol swung near Daichi's face again, nearly brushing against his nose, making him step back, but not making him let go of the door. The redhead frowned. For such a rich man Takaoka became in one day the contents of the bottle surely smelt like something he bought three days ago and at the cheap store also. Not to mention that for a happy man Takaoka wasn't smiling at all.

'You can't do that to me.' he said, stepping forth, but quickly moving back as the meaty hands of the man swung near his face again 'I have kids to take care of!'

'One kid! Just one!' shouted the man, pointing one finger up just to emphasize the fact that Temari was not her brothers also 'I saw that the rest was taken away by some man, and to tell the truth, Sabaku, it's better for them! No father should let their kids live in a place like this! You have three days to move your things out from my building!...'

The man said something more, making a tirade about how bad was a place he had to take care of and that he was an idiot to try to live here with kids, but Daichi didn't listen to him. A big black mastiff, the favorite of Takaoka and also the only other living being in the man's flat, turned up suddenly, limping very badly on three legs, bandaged with something that looked like the only clean thing that could be found in the flat. Also, the few sharp wounds that an through the dog's muzzle seemed to be more fresh than some kinds of meat Daichi saw in his cheap store.

And suddenly the realization came to him. The man wasn't paid to get a flat for a new client. The new member of the building, whoever it was, came here and demanded a free place, and as the man said to him he was out of vacancy, made him find one. He was being thrown out as one of those who, in comparison to his neighbors, was one of the most harmless clients that wouldn't get back on the man's back. It was a matter of surviving.

'I see.' he said, breaking through the river of words from the man and hid the money to his pockets. 'Goodbye.'

Takaoka for once looked sympathetic and just as unhappy as the situation was.

'I'm sorry, Sabaku.' he muttered under his thick line of moustache 'Your family wasn't that bad, I actually liked the kids, but… I have no other choice.'

'Goodbye.' said Daichi once again and turned his back on him, not welcoming the apology and turning a blind eye toward whatever the man wanted to tell him. They were never on good terms and his situation was far worse than the one from the mafia members. He had no reason to be nice to him. The door clicked behind him as usual. Three days.

'Good thing that I packed.' he muttered and laughed out bitterly. Temari looked at him with wide eyes, scared out. It was too bad that since the phone accident the man kept the apparatus near himself all the time. She'd really like to call to Minato now. Really.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato really should have expected it. It had taken the man long enough to be able to corner him, not that Minato hadn't been avoiding getting cornered to the best of his abilities. What the blond hadn't expected was for the man to lower himself to attack the weakest link like that. The least Minato had been expecting when he got into the kinder to pick his son was Naruto bawling his eyes out while the much bigger male tried to soothe him.

Under other circumstances he wouldn't have thought much about the matter besides what was happening, but the fact was that Naruto already had his jacket on, Asuma looked distinctly panicked and the little blond was giving a detailed description of what had happened on Monday. It was probably the first show of luck he'd had this week that the little boy was doing it in fluent –if nasal- Fire country dialect.

'The hell?' In the moment it took Naruto to turn towards him and dash for his father, the latter was already glaring fiercely at the brunette. 'What are you doing to my son?'

Not that he didn't know. He knew perfectly well what the older man was doing, and it might have been the stress, or the lack of sleep, or the fact he hadn't been able to find a single package of the cigarettes he liked since last night, but it probably was just the fact this man- this adult he was entrusting his kid to had resorted to pulling the little blond out from whatever sort of safe environment he had in the group to question him about matters that concerned solely adult.

'If you have problems with me, do try and address them to the proper party, my son has nothing to do with any of this!' As a response, Naruto just clung harder to his neck, pressing his hot, wet face to his neck.

'I'm sorry, Mr. Uzumaki.' said Asuma, massaging his neck lightly as he got up. 'But lately Naruto had been really put down by the matters I couldn't understand… and which started concerning me.' The serious look on the face of the man showed that he truly was interested, though not without the hint of malevolence. 'As a child guardian I do my best to not miss any hints of something that might hinder the law in behavior of kids. And lately, it seemed that something happened to little Sabaku and nobody told me anything about it – and knowing that man everything is possible. The fact that Naruto knows something doesn't help it either.'

Though the fact that Naruto started talking didn't do him any good – the words such as 'psheh-proh-wajikka' or 'Gaary-iooshnemah' didn't tell him anything. That was the usual problem with foreign kids.

'I am just worried about your kid's health.'

'As a child guardian?' and he stressed the word with the full of his accent, making the word seem like some utterly foul dish in the medieval ages 'As a child guardian you were only too happy to make me responsible from the beginning on regards of that poor child, so don't you dare try and follow your hints with my son now! It's your fault we were involved at all in the first place.' Which wasn't really true, but he was beyond caring. Minato was tired of feeling there was no safe spot left in the world where he could be sure no harm could come to Naruto for the five minute he took his eyes off him.

'Whatever happened to Sabaku's kid is his problem, and if you want to find out, go ask him yourself and make it yours, but don't harass my son to play good teacher, is that understood?'

'_Gaary już nie ma._' Naruto practically mouthed against his neck, adding even more liquid to the spreading stain on the material of his pullover, not that Minato was in any situation to notice, or that he would have cared much if he had. The miserable tone was what hurt him the most.

'_Tak, wiem,_ Naru.' he muttered in a completely different tone of voice as he put a hand on the boy's back possessively, his glare unaltered even as he rubbed softly in an attempt to comfort. '_No, już cichutko_'.

Asuma sighed, looking vaguely unhappy about whole situation, but there wasn't much else he could do. The blond was right after all – though, he had to admit that as for harassing, he really didn't know that Naruto would take questions about Gaara so badly.

'I am truly sorry.' he said, rising his hands a little, then letting them fall back to the sides 'But that's my duty. I wasn't only worried about Sabakus as I said. But I didn't mean to do any harm either way.'

Being a teacher surely was a hard work. Even if you spent your day taking care of kids to not harm themselves ten hours a day and sacrificed all your patience for them to not eat glue or break their heads on the swings, parents were still unhappy when you tried to intervene. Though he was sure that if there was real abuse going on, neither of the parents would be happy about him pestering about it.

Minato didn't bother with answering, he just gave the other man a hateful look and simply turned around, Naruto still safely clutches to his chest. It took them to almost be home for Naruto to calm himself enough to finally pull away, looking at his father with bloodshot blue eyes- he probably should stop at the pharmacy and get some eye drops while he was at it.

'Daddy?'

'Hm.' he tried to tuck Naruto's head under his chin to give him another squeeze but the boy squirmed away again, still looking at him in that worried way.

'Daddy, you yelled at Asuma-sensei.' he paused, rubbing his sleeve under his nose forcefully, leaving the appendage even redder than before 'Really bad.'

He thought of denying it, which was his automatic response when such conversations happened, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to.

'…I know,' he sighed, adjusting the boy's weight on one arm 'I'll apologize later.' Maybe in an hour or two, when he felt better and les like jumping at anything the man said. It wasn't like him to jump like he had, and he felt (predictably enough) a vague wave of guilt start gnawing at him. That had been uncalled for. He shouldn't have reacted so badly, he had just- he'd seen Naruto like that and he had lost it.

If there was one thing he hated more than failing to his son was for terrible things to happen to him while he wasn't there to fix them. He was terrified someday he'd be gone an hour, a minute, a second, and it'd be an extra minute or hour or second too late. He might not be able to fix everything or keep it all under control, but that didn't keep him from worrying over it.

'Daddy?'

'Yes, Lisku.' this time Naruto allowed himself to be pulled closer, snuggling against his father's chest, his hand twisting in the material of his jacket in a better hold.

'I forgot my bag.' Damn. He knew he was forgetting something. He stopped, turning around to give the way back a long look of consideration. Of course he could just go back and get it, but then he'd have to see Asuma again and the man might try to ask him something else. Then he might say even worse things he'd regret.

'Did you have anything important in it?' For a moment the little blond was quiet, his body tense, but then he relaxed almost bonelessly against him again, shaking his head softly. 'You sure?'

'Yeah.'

'And you don't mind leaving it until Monday?'

'The apple will go bad.' the tired answer didn't seem to be stemmed from any particular sort of actual worry, so Minato let it slide.

'It's too cold for that, Naru. We'll get it on Monday.' The little blond nodded, his hand tightening again over the hardened clay in fox shape, almost strongly enough to break a couple of the tails. He was lucky he kept it close at all times. If not, his daddy might have had to go back to the kinder and yell at Asuma-sensei again, and he knew his daddy was nervous enough not to need that happening at all.

#+#+#+#+#+#

The last night before the hearing Daichi spent sleepless. Sure, at first he occupied himself with checking all corners in his house for anything he could have left, but beyond a pair of winter mittens he thought he threw out long ago he found only dust and mouse's hole. Especially the last thing was useless as he was getting away from there.

For a second he thought about closing it, but then decided against it. Whoever was coming after him deserved to deal with the problem himself, only for the fact he stole their flat if not any other sins. But as Temari was asleep long time ago and he had packed every last thing, he had nothing else to do. Spending his time with the papers was good, but after another hour he had them almost memorized and that couldn't really help him either. So, by the moment it was five a.m. he was dumbly starring at the mirror and counting every little red hair on his chin he was supposed to shave.

He felt dead inside and there was no exaggeration to that. He hadn't seen both of his sons for three days now, he was fired from his only job and he was also being kicked out of his house (he didn't dare to call it 'home'). Sure, neither of the things was of best quality, but it provided some safety, and now he lost that too. It was a very good reason to start worry about what he had left also.

'Daddy?' muttered the only one of his little treasures drowsily as he woke her up and looked at him worriedly. Somehow, he didn't manage to hide his own fears from her. Kids were very sensitive when it came to that.

'Nothing, sunshine.' he muttered, stroking the loose strands of saffron, feeling the internal anxiety. The things weren't looking very good. Temari's ears instantly perked at the nick he gave her, as he usually didn't do that.

'Daddy?' she asked again with concern, but he only smiled at her and went out of the room.

'Get dressed. We have a very important appointment today.'

And boy, he hoped he wasn't so right about that.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Thankfully for his newly developed insomnia, they were on time. Again.

'Kotetsu. Hagane Kotetsu.' said the man who entered the waiting room in which they sat down – both twiddling thumbs as Temari mimicked him without Daichi noticing and her seeing she mimicked him. 'I am the freelance lawyer allocated to you from the government. I'll be representing your case.'

Daichi stood up and shook the hand that was given to him, then looked at Temari. The girl looked concerned almost all the time now and she caught the pantleg of his best suit almost instantly. He stroked her head for a moment, concerned all the same.

'Is there any… waiting room, for kids?' he muttered as he kept looking at his firstborn, unable to look away from her. Hagane nodded.

'Of course, there's a room for children for such cases. I think the other should be in already. Please, follow me.' At those words, Daichi's heart skipped a beat. Others? As… Kankuro? And Gaara? He could barely stop himself from running but the man just walking, so he had to keep his pace. But much to his hope, it came it was only some boy with braid waiting for his guardians also.

'Daddy?' was squeaked at him almost immediately he kneeled down. He winced at the scared tone of girl's voice.

'As I told you, Temari.' he muttered, looking her in the eyes 'Now I'll go to the hearing, and you will stay here, with that boy-'

'I'm Lee!' said the boy, unasked by anyone. Daichi dismissed him.

'-and when I'm back, we will be back home, all together. Okay?'

'But you will be back? You will be back?' asked the girl, obviously not convinced. For some reason, the new clean space seemed to freak her out, but Daichi couldn't help that. He had to go, and he had to go now.

'I already said I will.' he muttered and stood up. The girl let go of him, but couldn't really hide the shaking lower lip. He wished he could find some consoling words, the ones that could sooth her somehow, but he doubted they existed. If they did, he'd be repeating them to himself like a mantra now. After one last glance, he was out of the room.

The courtroom was huge. Huge and overwhelming. Also, for such a big place it also felt very empty, as there were almost no audience beside the few people he didn't know and him and his lawyer. Hagane kept on sending text messages under the table and was very uninterested with the papers that lied in front of him. Daichi sat on the chair nearby, wondering if he could ask for something or not. But as the man seemed to ignore him, he decided to sit quiet also. A moment later the door opened, and a pair of new personas went in. That instantly made the Hagane stop text messaging and wave his hand at one of them.

'Hello, Izumo!' he mouthed, though Daichi could clearly hear what he said. But that was not his problem. The problem was that the second person who entered the courtroom was none other but Yashamaru himself. With hair tied to a ponytail and a business suit with dark glasses he looked almost too manly for his usual appearance.

'Where are my kids, you son of a bitch?' he mouthed to him through the hall when the blond head turned toward him. But the man had only smiled wider and waved to him like if they were good friends. He felt like taking his lawyer's suitcase and throwing it at him. Too bad that he had to respect the sacred prospect of that place or the figure of blind justice. Or gods only knew what he'd do. 'Who is that?' he barked unfriendly at his lawyer only to make an impression he was following his way of talk.

'Izumo Kamizuki. My best friend! It seems he's got the job to be the lawyer of Mr. Karakuri. He looks dreamy, doesn't he?' And with that, completely out of shame, Hagane sent the lovely kiss toward the other man, who, just as shamelessly caught it. To Daichi it seemed like if they said 'best friend' was very friendly in very varied aspects of life and that the one swept with him was his lawyer and not otherwise. And that actually seemed to look like a problem of his interest.

He turned to ask about the possible positive arguments for his case, but the cell phone was once again in action, along with text messaging. Daichi frowned but shut his mouth slowly. He started to dislike his lawyer. Maybe he was a good lawyer (he hoped so) but as a person, he seemed to have this annoyed side every person in the first stage of love had. Not to mention it was a very gay love.

So, instead of damaging his nerves, he decided to start staring at the blond man who said just in front of him and still had the glasses on, so it was impossible to tell if he was looking at him or not. Finally, Daichi even sent him a text message ('Where the hell are my kids?') but as the response man had only texted: _'U should turn off ur phone in the court'_ and once again waved at him, making him want to not only put the phone on full sound but also throw it at him with the mp3 of the bomb blowing up. The further it went, the more he was sure he'd finally do it. In the end, his pathetic position was ended by the judge finally coming in.

'Judge Reki Mitarashi, please stand up.' said one of the many faces of security that walked around there, so they stood up. 'Please, sit down' said the man who entered, so they sat down. What a comedy. 'I'm opening the case number 1233544/458654'.' said the man and suddenly stopped only to spit out the bubble gum he was chewing on. Daichi felt like if something was going wrong here. What was that supposed to be? A rookie on the chair of the judge?

Was he supposed to believe in words of someone who had came in only after the studies? He turned to Hagane to ask about the length of the practice the Judge Mitarashi had, but Hagane was once again playing with the phone, even if he was supposed to put it down at that time

'The summoning of Karakuri no Yashamaru against Sabaku no Daichi for taking away the parental rights. Is the plaintiff and defendant present in the courtroom?' Both lawyers nodded. 'All right. Then please, defendant, stand up. Introduce yourself.'

Daichi nodded and stood up, hitting lightly his lawyer in the process and making him drop the phone on the floor. Hagane immediately blushed at the noise and hid the thing deep inside the suitcase along with the disapproving glance of the judge.

'My name is Sabaku no Daichi, I am thirty two years old.' he said, counting up the years he had been through. The time surely flied fast. 'I have ended Political Science on the Akasuna University. Currently I'm working as the accountant at the Sound Company. I am represented by Hagane Kotetsu.'

Because they surely couldn't know he was fired two days ago. His boss didn't have the slightest idea he was having any matters inside the court or he'd kick him out even earlier and he didn't try to update his status in the court's papers.

'Very well.' said the man, once again chewing gum obviously thinking nobody noticed this. It was apparently a new one as the old one was still rolled in the paper and laying near the court's hammer. 'You were summoned here under the case of being not good enough parent for the three of your children. Do you swear to tell the truth and only the truth here?'

'So help me gods.'

'What do you have to say in the matter then?'

'The only thing I have to say that Mr. Karakuri is wrong.' he said, trying his best to not spit out the surname of Yashamaru. It wasn't his real one, but along the nickname of 'The Puppet Master' it was also one of many codes he used for his appearance. Of course, his daily life contained yet another personality 'My brother in law holds a grudge against me, thinking I was the one responsible for killing his sister and my wife. Once again I tell you, Yashamaru – it was a sickness, I have papers for that and you do too-'

'Mr. Sabaku, but you have to address the judge only.' said Reki, butting in, chewing gum quite openly now as he held the hammer in his hand. 'Talking to other people in the court is forbidden, do you understand that?'

'Yes, I'm sorry.' he said and tore his eyes away from his in law. It seemed that Yashamaru was having fun with the situation, as he smiled even wider now, the dark glasses laying in front of him. 'As I said, my brother in law holds a grudge against me, so he does everything to take away the things I value the most. In such case, my children.'

'Objection!' suddenly said Kamizuki, rising his hand 'The defendant is putting emotional emphasis on his talking.'

'Overruled. Please, continue.'

'Since the death of my wife, he didn't stop stalking us and taking my kids away from me without my knowledge- it came to that he took them when I wasn't looking and hid them away gods only know where and pretended he didn't know what's happened. Thankfully, my daughter, the oldest one, found her way out and told me what's happened – since then I decided it's the best to severe our relationship and got away from my current location to this town without giving him any way of contacting us.'

'And why didn't you contact the police or decided to put the kids under a restraining order?' said Mitarashi, this time getting the gum out of his mouth and looking closer. Daichi sighed. He did contact them, but he doubted anyone knew that now… Law could be so intelligible sometimes.

'It's because I was afraid he could harm them anyway. Just like now.' He said, looking at the judge, but then, one of his little piece of patience broke and he slammed his fist against the table, scaring both of the lawyers and the judge 'Where are my kids, you bastard? What the hell did you do to them?' Yashamaru only smiled.

'Silence! We do not allow such a foul language in the court, Mr. Sabaku!' yelled the man, having his lungs obviously stronger than it looked like at the beginning 'Please, restrain yourself or I'll have to escort you away from the room! Is that clear?'

'Yes, I'm sorry. It's just that this had happened again-'

'Objection!' once again said Kamizuki 'My client did not kidnap the children of Mr. Sabaku! The defendant is putting false opinions about Mr. Karakuri!'

'Overruled – Mr. Kamizuki, please, stop interrupting the words of Mr. Sabaku – the time for questions will come later.'

'I'm sorry, Your Honor.'

'Please, continue.'

Daichi shot a dagger with his eyes toward Yashamaru, who, once again, took it as if Daichi was looking at the wall behind him and turned his head toward the judge again.

'As I said – we moved here. I found a job and a place to stay, the kids also went to three different schools that provided a good source for their knowledge. Then he found out our telephone number and it all started out again.'

The sound of papers being moved. It seemed that Hagane was noting everything he said, though he was supposed to know all of that already. This didn't sound very reassuring. 'The kids were under a good care, but he started stalking us again – and after some time, he finally found us and kidnapped both of my younger kids – give them back, you hear me?' 'Mr. Sabaku!' The sound of the hammer banging against the table. Daichi slumped in his position.

'I'm sorry about that. It really makes me nervous to not know where they are- but as for that, there's no need to remove my parental rights. I am a good father, I keep my kids safe and sound – they have the place to stay in, they're healthy and they go to school. I've never beat them and I treasure them as they are all I have left after my dead wife.'

'Is that all you wanted to say?'

'Yes.'

'All right. Does the prosecution having any questions?'

'Yes, Your Honor!' said Kamizuki, getting up from his place. 'Mr. Sabaku! You said that you work and that keep your kids healthy and at good shape – but from good sources we know that the Sound Company you're working in had big financial problems lately due the massive piracy of the soundtracks and couldn't pay you up the payment you deserved. The wage you've got was only a minimal one knowing that the budget was cut low even a few months earlier. How did you keep your kids healthy without the money?'

Daichi winced.

'We lived from savings.'

'All four of you?'

'Yes.' he said and squeezed his fingers on the table he was standing up from a little harder 'It was a hard task, I'm not saying it wasn't. But we managed through.'

'A child of four years old needs a daily take of around 1900 kcal at its best. This means that one child's intake should contain at least three warm meals a day, and every one of them should contain at least 400 kcal, not to speak about snacks in-between. Every one of them should have balanced amount of proteins, vitamins, minerals and sugar. Can you honestly say that three children of yours ate at least three warm meals a day from the payment you owned – here Kamizuki mentioned the sum, making Daichi wince even more; he was precise to the last coin – and also could provide from that payment for gas, water, electricity, clothes and medicine and after all that, also feed and take care of yourself? I remind you that a grown man's intake of daily calories-'

'Objection, Your Honor, the intake of daily calories of my client has nothing to do with the case.' suddenly said Hagane, not even removing his eyes from the papers. Daichi looked at him, a bit surprised, but also feeling relief. So he didn't fall asleep after all.

'Sustained. Mr. Kamizuki, Mr. Sabaku's meals are not our concern.'

'Very well then, let me just go back to the last words: Mr. Sabaku, can you honestly say that your kids got three warm, fully suited meals for their needs from what you earned?'

'I said that we had to cut down on everything, my payments for the bills had to be prolongated-'

'Were there two meals?'

'-and I did my best to be at home at the time of the proper meals, but-'

'One meal for every kid?'

'One meal.' said Daichi finally, defeated. Truthfully, sometimes it wasn't even that, but he had to play along for his best 'The breakfast. But they also ate at school and at the house of their post-school nanny.'

'As far as I know the kindergarten under Three Hazelnuts doesn't have the canteen, only gives kids milk for lunch every Thursday. Also the Akasuna school's assemble the two older kids go to had a general renovation and the meals that were usually served thrice a week were dismissed for the last four months. But let's move to the next question…' Daichi bit his lower lip, seeing how Yashamaru relaxed on his chair. It was more than obvious that the blond was enjoying the show as he felt completely calm, while he felt that the battle he was going to fight against was going to take no survivors.

'Mr. Sabaku' said once again Kamizuki, looking up from his pile of papers 'You said that your children were going to school.'

'Yes. They attend the Akasuna Assembly of Schools and the kindergarten under Three Hazelnuts. Those are not bad places, I checked.'

'Indeed, they aren't. They have good reputation and take the high place in the rankings of schools in the country. But the time of the kids' schedule varies. Can you tell us at what time do you work, Mr. Sabaku?'

'From nine a.m. to six p.m. Sometimes longer.'

'How much longer?'

'Three to four hours. I take the additional hours to raise my wage.'

'So It means that you worked at least ten to twelve hours a day depending on the time given. Your kids begin lessons earlier and end it even earlier – the latest hour of their schedule, as the homeroom teacher of your oldest child, Temari, said, is at half past four p.m. Who took care of kids when they were not under control?'

'They were still in school. Akasuna district has a club-room that lets kids do their lessons and play there for later.'

'And your youngest child?'

'I talked with Mr. Sarutobi, he said he would stay for a little longer, until I get the child back.'

'Mr. Asuma Sarutobi agreed to talk with us about that – as we have it recorded on the materials added to the proofs of the case - and said that he did that only to some point, as it was highly negative for his own life. Let's hear it out…'

'The court allows to play the recording named as the Proof No. One.' The tape moved, showing the man Daichi knew for so long, sitting in his usual small so called office as he answered the questions calmly. But beside the image, Daichi couldn't really register what was said. For a moment he just wanted to get up and get away from the courtroom.

The recording ended.

'Mr. Sarutobi Asuma, as we just saw, said he closes the kindergarten at the usual hour now. Can you explain that?'

Daichi looked back at the man, for a moment not saying anything. But at the slight poke by his own lawyer, he regained the ability to speak.

'Yes. A friend of mine decided to help me out and started taking care of kids after the end of their schedule.' A friend was just a bit big word. But he couldn't use any less. Since that man wasn't in the courtroom he decided that it wouldn't be bad if he defended himself in every possible way.

'What kind of friend? Is he present in the courtroom today?' said Kamizuki, looking through his pile of papers, obviously confused. Daichi glanced toward his own lawyer, who also did the same and sighed. Yes, the papers needed updating. Quite much, and that was good because even Yashamaru's smile wasn't so bright now.

'No, he isn't.' he said with disaffection, looking at his hands now. 'I don't think he'd be here anyway, he has a busy life on his own.'

'That's not an excuse, Mr. Sabaku, the case needs all important witness it can provide.' said Hagane near him, also moving through his pile of papers 'And from what you say it seems he spent a lot of time with your kids. Is he a nanny you talked about earlier?'

'Mr. Hagane, it's not your time to ask questions, stick with the order.' said the Judge, but looked at Daichi 'Well? Answer the question, Mr. Sabaku. It's important.'

Daichi curled a bit inside.

'Yes, he is the nanny I talked about earlier.' he said and almost jumped when the pile of papers that was held in Hagane's hands suddenly landed on the desk with loud echo.

'I demand postponement, Your Honor. The case can't be lead through without all important witnesses without adding the doubt to the final verdict.' he said in a tone that already signed he called it a day and was ready to go out to drink coffee, beer or whatever lawyers of his dubious status drank after work. The Judge actually looked at him with hesitation. Daichi's heart accelerated it's beat twice.

Could it be possible? Not that he was happy about having everything moved to such a far away date as June of next year, but as far as things went it seemed that it was better for him to repair the ground he was standing on before he could speak up instead of going down the way he was now. But just when he thought he was going to get a second chance, Yashamaru, for the first time in the whole hearing, spoke up.

'I don't see why should this happen.' he said in a smooth relaxed tone, sounding more convincing that any of the lawyers so far 'I'm sure that if it's such a good friend of Mr. Sabaku, then a phone call would make him come to the hearing immediately. It's only a few minutes of interrogation, nothing more. You have a cell phone, right, Daichi?'

And the words were like honey with birch tar, making the redhead want to spit the saliva he held in his mouth. He couldn't lie he didn't – he texted Yashamaru just a few minutes before, and lying about the fact he didn't know the number of the phone of the man would put him in negative light when it came to leaving kids with unknown man. With death in his glare, he rose up his cell phone he put in the pocket of his suit.

'Yes, I do.' he muttered with malevolence. Immediately, the sound of hammer hitting the surface of the desk followed.

'Silence! The Judge did not allow to speak any of you!' said Reki, once again hitting the surface of the desk with a hammer. 'Prosecution and defense, could you please come closer.'

Then the quiet talk emerged. As much as Daichi didn't know what was supposed and what shouldn't happen in the court, he was sure that such things shouldn't take part in the hearing. Especially, as even if he couldn't hear what they were talking about, he heard words that shouldn't happen in such case. Like 'but we can't' and 'quickly' and 'I only think about children.'

'Very well.' said the main man finally and stood up from his desk 'I administer ten minutes break because of the unexpected matters on the hearing. We will be back to it shortly.'

And with that, the tense atmosphere in the court lifted, vanishing completely with the exit of the judge.

'You shouldn't hide any facts from me.' said Hagane, rearranging his notes, so they looked neat and glanced at the redhead. 'Especially such important ones as this.'

Daichi didn't say anything to that, as the man once again started looking toward the prosecutor as lovey dovey lover and instead he turned around to look in front of himself. Yashamaru once again had the glasses on his eyes and seemed to find a pleasure in looking around himself on the neverechanging surroundings. Suddenly, one hand in the black glove rose and poked at the temple. Daichi frowned and touched his own, wincing at the feeling. The bruise still hurt. Yashamaru's face seemed to brighten just from seeing his expression.

'You're so gullible.' he mouthed and turned his head to the side, obviously ignoring any kind of answer that could come back at him. Daichi bit through the curse.

The trial was still not ended. He was going to show him who really was gullible here.


	25. 25: Vodka

A few minutes later the hearing renewed, along with both lawyers and the judge talking about the matters in hushed tones.

'I reopen the case.' said Judge as the talk ended 'At the current situation the hearing will be lead forth, without Mr. Uzumaki. Does the prosecution have any other questions?'

'Yes, if I may.' said Kamizuki, once again standing up from his chair 'The last question about the case was about with whom the kids stay after they leave their places of education. Let's go back to that.'

The sound of notes moving. Daichi looked down. Hagane was once again noting everything that was said. Weren't they having a secretary for that?

'Mr. Sabaku' said the prosecutor, getting back his attention to the topic 'Who is the said Mr. Uzumaki you leave the kids with?'

'Objection, Your Honor, the personality of a friend has nothing to do with the fact if Mr. Sabaku is a good parent or not.'

'Sustained.'

'Let me then rephrase the question: what do you know about man with whom you leave your kids? The moment Mr. Sarutobi could get back to closing the kindergarten at normal hours shows that it wasn't a long friendship.'

'No, but it was a good one.' said Daichi immediately, not lying about this one at least. He couldn't take back any benefits from the man while he brought in almost nothing to that symbiosis 'We're both parents of growing children, so we met through the kindergarten. He is a writer, comes from the Fire country – and as a nanny he provided a good care to my children.'

'As?'

'Making them warm meals, sacrificing his time to be with them. I think that's good enough.'

'Not exactly, Mr. Sabaku, to be a guardian of the kids there are detailed expectations that should be met by social - if not by procedural – level. But I guess that your friendship was strong enough to not question such. Let's test that. What kind of book is Mr. Uzumaki writing?'

'I… don't know.' said Daichi, frowning and looked down at his lawyer. Hagane didn't seem to find any problems within the question though 'What that has to do with anything?'

'Do excuse me, but in such place it's my duty to ask questions here, Mr. Sabaku' said the man and looked up from his notes 'Where were your kids taken while they were with Mr. Uzumaki?'

Daichi looked back, suspicious. He didn't like the way it went.

'Nowhere. They sat with him in his home and waited for my return. It's too cold to make journeys to lunapark.'

'Is that so.' said Kamizuki with the same tone and pursed his lips, ever so slightly. Had Daichi wanted it or not, he couldn't tell he didn't notice his own lawyer going red at such image. What the hell. 'My client says that once he was out for shopping in the eastern district of the town – which means, the district where the kindergarten is – he saw your oldest daughter, Temari, walking around without any kind of protection. Akasuna district is the place at the North side of the town and at such time she should be there. How can you explain that?'

'It was the single occurrence.' said Daichi, feeling the sweat slowly wetting the nape of his neck 'My daughter decided it would be good to be more independent on her own and ventured there on her own.'

'So you admit that the care of Mr. Uzumaki wasn't as good as it should be, if he would let that happen.'

'It was a single occurrence.' said Daichi helplessly. He couldn't really say that Naruto's dad really had no privilege to take care of his older kids and that he only took care of Gaara for a long time because of having Naruto at the same place, because that would be digging himself a grave. Not that he didn't do that with lying already, but his vision slowly became fogged with fear. He only knew one thing – he had to keep his children close, and telling the truth was the worst way to obtain that. 'I have no more questions then.' Said Kamizuki and sat down. The Judge nodded and turned toward the Hagane.

'Does the defense have questions?'

'Yes, Your Honor.' said Hagane and stood up, not facing Daichi, seeming to be concentrated on his papers. 'Mr. Sabaku, is that true that your wife died four years ago due the incurable sickness?'

Daichi agreed.

'Then it's true that for four years you provided all possible means of care for those children, managing to keep them healthy and sound all by yourself only from the money of your raise.'

'Yes, that's true.'

'Why didn't you ask for government for help for additional money as a single parent with large family?'

'Because as the kids don't have any physical disability and I have a job, I was acknowledged as fully capable of taking care of them on my own and the additional funds were not admitted to me.'

'That's all, thank you.'

'Very well. Then the Judge calls the first witness, Mr. Orochimaru Otokage.'

The door opened and once again, Sadako was lurking in, just like from the worst nightmare.

He couldn't- they couldn't- But Orochimaru didn't know he had problem with the court!

'Please, introduce yourself.' said the Judge, completely oblivious to the internal chaos that broke inside Daichi's head. The man stopped and looked around, only now moving his black hair from his face and revealing rather harsh bruises around his face. As it came, one of his hands was bandaged from his fingers all up to the sleeve of the elegant suit (Gucci).

'My name is Otokage Orochimaru, I'm forty five years old.' he said and smiled as everyone in the court looked at him with surprise, the Judge being no exception 'I am a chief of Sound Company, the first producer of music in Suna. I currently live at the Eastern District of the town.'

'What is your relationship with the present here, Sabaku no Daichi?'

'I was his superior at the Sound Company when he worked for me as an accountant.' he said, not losing his smile even for such questions.

'Was? Can you talk more precisely?' said the Judge, stopping the noting in the notepad. The man let out a little laugh, that sounded more vile than a normal laugh should.

'Yes, that's what I exactly said. Two days ago Mr. Sabaku broke the certain rules he was aware of and made me fire him at instance. As you can see, his reaction was rather violent toward that.'

'Mr. Sabaku.' Daichi shook a bit in his place, but he obediently stood up. 'Do you want to add anything to what Mr. Otokage had just said?'

The redhead let out a shaky breath, but closed his hands into fists and looked up.

'Yes. I was fired from work two days ago. I didn't update the papers about that.'

'Very well. Please, sit down. Does prosecution have any questions?'

'Yes, Your Honor' said Izumo again and stood up. Daichi rose up his head slightly, as he kept it down in shame. Yashamaru's smile was blinding, so he lowered it again. 'What kind of worker was Mr. Sabaku?'

'Exceptional. He had a lot of strength and a lot of wit, so I had to say he was one of my better workers.' said Orochimaru plainly, not for once changing his expression 'Sadly, it hadn't coincided with his attitude.'

'What do you mean by that?'

'He worked late, but he also never came on time. His excuses were beyond my interest as he said it's because of a family. In my company you either manage to do something or not, that's what makes this company big.'

'So you want to say that he didn't work as long as a normal worker would even if he took the additional hours.'

'Additional hours in his case were only redo of hours lost while he was absent in the morning.' Daichi looked up at him, feeling bitter hate at the words that were spoken, but he couldn't say anything about it. He worked hard and it was even harder as he was always tired, always on full errand and having his head full of thoughts about each of his kids. If he was healthy, rested and without family baggage, his work probably wouldn't drain him so much 'His work didn't move as fast as it did at the beginning and even if he was very pedantic when it came to calculations I can't say I was impressed.'

'So, you want to say that Mr. Sabaku could work better and get better raise if he wanted.'

'In my opinion, yes, he would.'

'And about the firing incident…' said Kamizuki, stopping the looking through papers and then glancing up at the man. Orochimaru took it without any signs of change 'You mentioned something about violent behavior of Mr. Sabaku at the information that he was being removed from the company. Can you tell us more about it?'

'I don't think there's much to say.' said the man, leaning over the other side again and brushing a strand of his black hair from his suit 'Since the financial status of my workers doesn't look very well, they tend to get more emotional about more cutting of the wages. In such case as cutting it off completely, Mr. Sabaku beat me up, leaving my face bruised, in need of three stitches above my left brow and with twisted hand. But I can't say I wasn't expecting that.'

'What do you mean, Mr. Otokage?'

'By that I mean that Mr. Sabaku was always a very nervous person and his irkiness could easily spark into aggression such as rising his voice, banging his fists on the tables, or throwing things around. I didn't call the police on him only because I pity his kids.'

'Was he always like that?' said Kamizuki, at last removing his eyes from the man. Orochimaru smiled even wider and closed his eyes. He looked almost too pleasured.

'Yes.'

_That's a lie!_ – almost said Daichi, but he desperately sat silent as he still felt the shame of his previous lie hanging upon him. Somehow, it seemed like if his words were untrustworthy toward anything what the man said from that point.

'And speaking subjectively, would such a man be a good father for his children if he behaved like Mr. Daichi?'

'No, I don't think that such aggression would do any good to the kids.'

'That's all from my side.'

'Mr. Hagane?'

It was the Judge. The man on Daichi's right cleared his throat and stood up, once again only looking at his papers. The redhead wondered if without them the man would be able to say something at all.

'Mr. Otokage, is that right that your company went through the financial problems in the last year?' Orochimaru leaned over the barrier, a little more displeased, but that wasn't very noticeable.

'Yes, that's true. My company suffered big loss of money.' he said curtly. Hagane nodded and moved his sheets around , looking through them.

'So it's true that all your workers had to work with the lesser payment than the usual.'

'Not only my workers, but me also.' said the man. Daichi had almost snorted under his nose. Really? It didn't show.

'Can it be possible that the small payment was what made Mr. Sabaku's effectiveness drop?'

'Of course it can. But I don't make exceptions for such things as everyone got under the same fate and many of them didn't drop their effectiveness. Some of them have even doubled it.'

'Of course, but Mr. Sabaku is the only parent of three children, which makes a big difference when it comes to time and health he could provide to the company.'

'That's not any of my concern. He works, he stays, he doesn't, he don't. I already said that my main priority is the good state of my company.'

'Thank you, that's all.' Daichi glared at his lawyer with stare that could burn people alive. What was that man playing at? He was not doing any good job in this so far, and as far as he knew, the thing was not supposed to last long as the schedule of hearings was a tight one. Was it really that bad?

'Hey…' he started at the man, but he only waved him off as the door opened again, revealing no one else but the owner of Daichi's flat.

'I'm Hiroshi Takaoka, sixty four years old administrator of the building.' he said, for once looking like a man he probably was somewhere in the past and not now – the drunkard from the suburbia of good flats. 'I rented the flat to Mr. Sabaku for the usual price I rent people such flats – and he mentioned the sum of payment. Daichi closed his eyes. He didn't want to be here anymore. The way it went, it could go only further down. The only thing that could stop it now was a meteor falling down on all their heads.

'Mr. Takaoka' said Kamizuki, once again springing from his chair like a string, just as tense and angular 'How many rooms the flat you rented to Mr. Sabaku has?'

'Three, along with one bathroom and the kitchen with the dining room.'

'Is it a place suited for a man with three kids?'

'Is it suited, I don't know.' said the man, despite his looks scratching his head in completely usual old way 'I know that I lived with my three brothers in one room, but when I was a kid it were different times – I know that Mr. Sabaku fit there with them all and nobody complained. Except me, of course.'

'What do you mean by that, Mr. Takaoka?' The man let go of a breath like if he was pushing off the big stone from his chest. Daichi winced at that. It was surely an exaggeration, but it worked just fine for anyone looking.

'Sabakus lived just en face my own flat, you see.' said the man, looking at the judge with his usual drunken eyes. Despite being sober, the red around the whites spoke louder for him than his whole behavior 'And it was rare for them to be quiet. If the father was not screaming at them, then they were the ones screaming at each other. The older kids, I mean, girl and boy. But the youngest one, woohoo!' At that, the man caught himself on the head like if he couldn't believe what he was about to say. Daichi gritted his teeth. _Gaara is sick, you idiot_ – he hissed in his head, but of course, his mouth said nothing.

'The youngest brat- I mean, kid, was police siren every other night. He could cry for such long amounts of time that sometimes I wondered if there weren't three of them around to change each other as the power of his lungs was impossible. I really don't know what that Sabaku did to them so they were so loud, but heck, it had to be something scary.'

'What do you mean by that?' asked Kamizuki, looking up at him from the papers.

'Well, I don't know, I don't look into people houses, y'know. They live by themselves, I live by myself, and as long as they pay we're even. But it was often that that kids were back from somewhere, they were always back home so late you see, they kept crying and just wouldn't get quiet, and the man just wouldn't hush them down.'

'Do you want to say that Mr. Sabaku could have abused them?'

'No, I don't think he would, the kids glued to him like flies glue to honey and if he beat them up they wouldn't do that – I know that Your Honor, as my father was such a bastard- I mean, bad man.' A clearing of the throat caused by the shame of the loose speech 'I just think he was too tired to deal with all of them. I mean, three lively kids and to pay attention to them all – it's draining and as far as I know, Sabaku couldn't buy himself a Power Rade.'

'Why do you say that?'

'Because I know they had financial problems. They lingered with payment for months, causing the power station to cut them off the electricity – but what else was to be expected. Three small kids, a tired father and they chose such a place to live as mine, it's obvious they are not very rich. Only because the kids were so cute, I mean, that girl reminded me so much of the daughter of my brother's, they both are so pretty, like dollies – I'm not pedophile, Your Honor, no, don't take me wrong – I turned a blind eye for that, but finally even my patience had to run out.'

'And what did you do then, Mr. Takaoka?'

'I had to oust them, that's all. I mean, I have to get my money from somewhere too, right? World revolves around money after all. No hard feelings, Sabaku, I already told you that.'

'I see. I have no more questions.' said Kamizuki and said down. The Judge, obviously in need of making balloons, only stopped himself and looked down.

'Does the defense have questions?'

'No, Your Honor.'

'All right. You can sit down, Mr. Takaoka – ' said the man and looked down at his notepad. Daichi for the change, openly glared at his lawyer. The man shot him back the offended look.

'Don't stare at me like that.' he muttered.

'How can I not do that when you're drowning my case!' hissed the man back. But Hagane didn't answer to that, obviously taught better than to pick up the fight with clients who didn't like him. Taught too well. Daichi wanted to beat his face in already.

'I call the last witness then, plaintiff, Mr. Karakuri.' said the judge. Yashamaru smiled once again, having observing the whole show with both men with an expression of a contented viewer, now looked like a jogger before the pleasant run.

'My name is Karakuri no Yashamaru.' he said when the Judge told him to introduce himself 'I'm twenty five seven years old and my profession is already know to the court.'

Strangely, nobody objected such showing of the facts.

'I am brother in law of the Mr. Sabaku, the twin of the deceased Sabaku no Karura, former Karakuri no Karura. I was the one to sue Mr. Sabaku for not being a good enough parent.'

'Can you tell us why did you do that?'

'Yes, of course.' said the man like if he was about to advertize the newest brand of the bleach for hard stains. Daichi felt, that even if he said to himself that whatever Orochimaru said was not true, his need for blood rose rapidly quick 'In my opinion Mr. Sabaku is not suited to take care of three children my deceased sister left under his care. He works days and night for money that don't last even for one kid, lies in a place that doesn't fulfill needs of a healthy human. I know that, because I was there.'

'Can you describe the place?' said Kamizuki, quieted down by the hammer of the Judge. It seemed that someone acted a bit too hot-blooded for his good – thought Daichi bitterly.

'Continue.'

'To make long story short the place looked like a hiding for bandits when It came to decorations. Also, there is a big stain of blood on the floor showing that husband of my sister also uses physical violence-'

'Objection!' was shouted, only that this time it was voiced by Daichi as he stood up. He had enough of lingering of his lawyer to show that he could rise and shine somehow at the end, the things went too far. 'I do not abuse my children! That's a slander!'

'Mr. Sabaku! Sit down!' said the Judge, as one of the guardians brought him back another of the court's proves, to look at them. As it seemed, it were pictures made with Polaroid, showing the grey linoleum with stains. Daichi couldn't tell from such distance, but the color matched.

'All right. What do you want to say about that, Mr. Sabaku?' said Judge, obviously changing his mind. Daichi stood up again, this time a bit calmer.

'I do not beat my kids.' he said, glaring at Yashamaru, even if he spoke to the main man of the place 'The stain on the floor is indeed blood, but it came from the accident. Gaara, my youngest, decided to climb up the cardboard for his favorite book and fell down cutting his forehead. Before I saw what's happened, he had already stained half of my carpet.' Well, that was a quite farfetched lie, because he didn't even see Gaara with the cut, as the moment he did he had his forehead already stitched. But admitting to that he had to leave his kids home alone was far much worse than that.

'I have papers from the hospital, the doctor who treated him was Tsunade Sennin, the abbess of the branch for injuries of children.' he said and showed one of the few of his papers he had with himself still.

'The Judge allows to add the document to the case as the proof.' said Reki as he took a look at the papers. 'You can sit down, Mr. Sabaku. Mr. Karakuri, please, continue.'

Yashamaru blinked, looking obviously displeased and not convinced at all when it came to the explanation of the stains on the carpet. But despite that, he continued.

'As I said, I don't think that Daichi is suit for a parent. He doesn't give them enough attention as he works twelve hours a day and doesn't fulfill their emotional needs as he usually demands them than listens to them. Well… he did, because as for now, he has no job and no place to stay with them.'

'Any questions, Mr. Kamizuki?'

'If I may' said the man, for the umpteenth time getting up with his block of papers 'Knowing what Mr. Sabaku can provide for his family, what can you provide for the kids in exchange?'

'I earn enough to provide them enough of the warm meals for every day in the week.' said Yashamaru, his voice confident and clear 'The hours of my job vary but I can sacrifice my free time for them and only for them. When I'm absent I will hire the real nanny and not a friend who can overlook the children because of having the one on his own. I have a place to stay with enough rooms and beds for every one of them. As members of my family I will love them and I won't be ashamed of showing it to them. I'll care.'

'Okay, I don't have any more questions.'

'But I do, Your Honor.' said Hagane, getting up from his place for the first time on his own. 'Regardless of what you may provide to the kids, is that true that two of them is already at your place?'

'Yes, that's true. They're coping with it very well.'

'Is that true that you forced the kids to come without the approval of their father?'

'No. Both Kankuro and Gaara came with me willingly. Temari did not, so I didn't take her with me. Daichi didn't say a word about them not going with me.'

'It's because you knocked me out, you bastard!' roared the man, standing up from his chair 'You pointed your gun at me and knocked me off unconscious! I have the proof of that on my face!'

'Silence! Mr. Sabaku, sit down right now or you'll be punished with the monetary fine!' Daichi sat down. Despite that, Hagane kept on standing.

'Is what my client just said, true? Did you point your gun at him in threatening matter and knock him out for kidnapping the children?' Yashamaru had only smiled sweetly, so sweetly as ever.

'I have no idea what he is talking about.'

And that was it. He had no evidence of that this exactly happened. He didn't go to the police showing them his face – only phoned them about the kidnapping. He wasn't at the hospital to bandage the wounds. Nobody, even his kids didn't see him getting those, and even if Temari did, he doubted that her opinion would count. She was too young for even taking part in such happening, not to tell about saying the right things. Daichi had only closed his eyes and sat quietly through the voicement of the final opinions of both of the lawyers

('Not suited to be a father, has no job, no place to stay, violent, abusive, ignorant toward the emotional needs, notorious liar and poor perspectives for eventual change for the future' versus 'A man in a momentary downhole doing his best at providing what he could to his kids and covering that all with care every now and then') he had almost missed the moment when the Judge called him out for eventual last words. He didn't hear what Yashamaru said. And he didn't care.

'Please.' he said with a shaky voice, seeing as the blond had a smile upon his lips that could be only compared to the cat who ate a mouse and drank a liter of milk 'Please, Your Honor… I love my kids. All of them. I would never harm them. Don't take them away from me.'

'Very well, then-'

'They're all I have!' he shouted, but his words were interrupted with loud banging with hammer.

'That's enough, Mr. Sabaku, you already had chance to say what you wanted!' said the Judge, obviously too annoyed by the redhead's actions as he stood up 'Fifteen minutes break until the final verdict if given, the way to the public toilets is open.'

And then there was silence. Daichi didn't even try to look at Yashamaru anymore. He could almost hear victorious shouts blinking from his bright smile and the way Kamizuki kept his composure showed that he was completely sure about his future.

'If I'm going to lose' he muttered lifelessly to the desk 'I'm going to knock out one of your teeth.'

'Go ahead then.' answered the man near him, also rearranging his papers 'Knock out even two. I can live without teeth, but at least I'll know I did the right thing.'

Daichi didn't even rise his head to get surprised. The life was only getting down on him, why would he expect any less from the occasional better side of fate? The freelance lawyer couldn't possibly think he is working for good ideals here.

'One day the newspapers are going to publish the truth about what Yashamaru can do.' he muttered with the bitter smile 'And when you will look at the faces if his victims, remember the words you just said here.'

There was nothing else he could do. Hagane didn't seem to even mind him after all. And fifteen minutes passed.

'Judge Reki Mitarashi, please stand up.' said one of the many faces of security that walked around there, so they stood up. 'Please, sit down.' said the man who entered, so they sat down. Daichi had the sense of déjà vu.

'The main verdict of the case number 1233544/458654' said the man with the clear voice 'In the name of the Wind country and knowing the law of the Suna, I announce: the defendant, Sabaku no Daichi at the current state is not suited to fulfill the role of a parent. His lack of proper job and the place to stay provide he is not in material state to provide material needs for children at the age of four, five and six and his mental state also put the fulfillment of emotional needs at question.

Usually, the judgment insists on a time frame that would last for the children to move from one guardian to another, but regarding the circumstances the court decided it's in children best interest to move them with their uncle immediately. Mr. Sabaku can visit them once every other week, until he gets a stable job and a place to stay. After getting back on the track with your life, Mr. Sabaku, the matter can get back to the court, not earlier. I close the case.'

And the case was closed.

Daichi sat on the chair in silence, staring dumbly in front of himself. What… what had happened just now? He knew, deep down he knew the answer, but up there he still didn't acknowledge it.

'Izumooo! You were fabulous! Fantasmorgastic!' cooed someone beside him, moving back and forth through the place now the judge was gone and atmosphere of seriousness was lifted. Someone laughed. Someone smacked, maybe even kissed. Daichi didn't see any of that. Someone went past his chair and pushed him, making him jerk a bit unconsciously. He looked up blindly; he didn't see other people. The murmur around him sounded like incoherent burbling of the big vacuuming machine. Or maybe someone had just opened the window. They were so big in this place. Everything was so big in this place. Had he… had he just lost his kids?

He couldn't do that, right? Such things didn't happen. His kids were his, his own to own, no one could take his blood from him as it belonged to his veins. Only it felt like if he had lost already an arm, if not some important part of his insides. Like, liver. Yeah, a liver sounded good. Or a lung. How he was supposed to live without a lung? He had no idea. What about the heart? He didn't know what beat in his chest just right now, but it surely couldn't be a muscle. Something tore inside him. He rose up his head and saw Yashamaru exiting the courtroom. That sprung him to action. In less than half of the minute he had ran out of the room, leaving all of his things behind and ran up to the child waiting room, before anyone else could get in.

Temari and the braided boy seemed to be the best friends now, playing with the Lego blocks. They build something that looked a bit like a castle, but also like a rook for colorblind, because only such people could look at so many red and blue without feeling the incoming seizure. Fabulous. Fantasmorgastic.

'Daddy!' chirped the little blonde, getting up from her current work and ran up to hug to his leg. He immediately kneeled down and hugged her back, tightly, the tightest…

He had to run away. He didn't know how. He didn't know which way. He only knew that he was not giving them his daughter and the rest of the logic could burn for all he cared. But when he stood up with her, the door opened and the blond man with two security guards stood there, smiling like a happy Buddha.

'Oh, there is my third golden angel.' he said, like if he didn't see Daichi here at all. The redhead immediately took a step back as the girl glued herself to him like a second skin 'You have no idea how much I've missed you in our home, Temari. Here, come to mommy.'

'You're not my mommy!' squealed the girl, obviously scared as she hugged herself to the man even closed 'Don't come closer! Daddy!...'

'Oh, right. I forgot. Come to uncle then.' said the man with a bit colder tone and reached out for the girl, holding her firmly under her arms, even if the little blonde did her best to stay intact. The blond smiled, cooing at this behavior for a moment like if he saw a cute puppy or a kitty in the basket, and then his smile tensed in the chilling air.

'Daichi, let go of her.' he muttered in a disapproving tone that still sounded sweet, but Daichi felt like if he tasted the cold pudding. You never expected it was cold until it was already in the mouth and made you shiver. 'Daichi.'

The last word was said with pressure that might sounded like a pressured tone, but in Yashamaru's language it was the last warning. Wide eyed, petrified, against all what he had promised himself in his head in all the buzz that went through in the last few seconds, Daichi's muscles started to relax.

'No! Daddy!' squealed the girl even more frightened, grasping his best shirt like if her life depended on it – and truly, at some strange way it surely did – but Daichi was already moving his arms to his sides, staring at her in horror. He didn't want to do that and gods only knew he wanted to only hold her, but this time the reason seemed to win all the battles. He let go of her. 'Daddy!' squealed the girl one more time, already tearing up in fear and her hands also gave up, letting go, straight into Yashamaru's hug.

'Don't cry angel, we will have a good time together.' he said and turned around, letting the girl only look back from his shoulders as the security also turned and moved forward.

'No! Daddy! Don't let him! I don't want to go! Let me go! Let go of me! Daddy!...' she shouted, with every step a little bit quieter, a little less understandable, until she and Yashamaru vanished in the golden light of the entrance. Only now he had noticed he rose up his hand in a hesitant wave, the reflex of goodbye he used for all partings. And now he had to live without lungs.

'Are you all right, mister?' asked the boy behind him, also a bit freaked out by what has happened but Daichi didn't even hear him. He moved forward, slowly taking his things away from the courtroom, got back to his big, empty car and drove away.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Following them getting home on Friday, Minato had made some lunch for Naruto, had a bit of vegetable soup out of pure principle (also known as prescription on an empty stomach is a bad thing, regardless of if you really are hungry or not) and then he had taken his tired and still cuddly baby to bed with him to watch some movie. He wasn't even sure what it was, only that he made sure it came from the kid-friendly stash and not the incredibly funny yet slashfully graphic old horror movies he favored. He also was pretty sure he didn't make it past the credits, because the next time he woke up was to the door ringing and his arm completely asleep after Naruto slept on top of it.

As It turned out, he slept about five hours and what woke him up was Iruka dutifully turning in for baby-sitting duties which meant that if he wanted to make it in time- well, there was no making it, Minato was behind on changing, showering and running out of the door, which also meant he caught all the traffic and had to get out of the bus only twenty minutes after getting in both because the cramped space and even more cramped people were making him sick to his stomach and because there was no way he would make it in time like this.

Instead he took the subway, which was just as cramped, if not more, but also significantly shorter a ride, and once he got down, he stopped a cab to get him to the last few blocks to the university, even managing to arrive at doubtlessly record worthy time of only thirteen minutes after when he was supposed to be.

By then, and as it is expected of kids who have two classes left before the magical date known as 'finals', his class is in a blind panic of small groups of hermits with their noses in the books desperately writing down everything they think will be asked in a text, two or three laptop users hysterically writing in forums to find out of classes got cancelled and the more outgoing ones having gone MIA to stalk through the building and demand a contact number to find out if Minato is coming back or not. He also gets the feeling a couple were planning to jump off the windows should he had decided not to make act of presence.

To make it up to them, he promises he will be an extra hour earlier next week on both days so they can go over what they still feel unsure about and given the fact half of the class looks like if it's about to burst into tears, he gets the feeling even Obito will be on time for that. And for a while, he doesn't think about Sabaku, which suits him just fine.

The next day is Saturday and Minato decides that if there is one little blond in desperate need of being spoilt rotten, that is Naruto. His mind made, he puts his blocked work out of his mind and gets up earlier than usual to prepare a good mix from scratch and give it enough time to rise so he'll get extra fluffy pancakes. By the time Naruto's done with curling and uncurling from his nest of blankets and pads barefoot to the kitchen, Minato is just finishing the second golden disk and puts it in front of his son's designed chair. Sleepy blue eyes blink at him before looking from them to the butter and syrup in front of it, and he shyly touches the one on top. It's poofy and warm, and if he knows his father, laden with sugar.

'…pancakes?"

'Pancakes.' the older blond agreed, flipping one around with the exaggerate care of someone who's already gone through at least one burn in the last three minutes. In the retrieval of the last pancake, no less.

'Yum.' Naruto's staring at his plate with the unmistakable greed of post toddlers who get exactly what they want for breakfast, and then he loses sight of him for a moment to land a new member to the funeral pie. By the time he turned around, Naruto was already tearing into his thoroughly syrup-soaked breakfast- with his hands.

'Aw, Naru.' he made a face at the sticky hands, chin, cheeks and nose. 'That's disgusting; can't you use the fork like normal people?'

'Shish eashier!' or that's what it sounds like at least around tearing half of the pancake and stuffing it into his mouth. It sort of looks more like if he's tearing into a raw bistec, given the violence of the action, but then again, Naruto is nothing If enthusiastic of everything he does. With a sigh, he finished the batter and bring the small tower of breakfast over to the table, looking at them thoughtfully for several moments before starting to peel an apple, dicing it and plopping the pieces on top of one pancake he took out for himself.

Naruto watched in fascination, until the action caught his father's attention, making him smile and offer him a thick apple slice. The blond smiled, leaned closer and took it into his mouth, chewing nosily- sometimes Minato got the feeling he pushed it a little bit thicker just to annoy him.

'You are a piggy.'

'No 'm not!'

'Yes you are.'

'I'm your fox.' the little blond said petulantly 'I can't be a piggy.' And of then he raised a hand to wipe his mouth with a sleeve.

'DON'T.' he said suddenly, throwing a wet cloth to the blond's face. 'Even think about it. I wash those pajamas, you know.'

'You wash them wrong.' the little blond stuck out his tongue at him.

'I'd wash them right if you stopped hiding orange clothes with the white ones.' Minato stuck it right back. 'Besides, you know I hate doing laundry.'

'Well, I hate going to bed early, but you still make me.'

'Yeah, right, you can barely stay awake past ten PM.'

'That's not true!'

'Yes it is.'

'No it's not!'

'Yes it is.'

'Daddy!' He grinned at his the little boy, and after a few more moments of fierce glaring, Naruto also broke into a broad smile, happily going back to stuffing his face. Minato relaxed a little further in his chair, his eyes going to the brightening day outside. It didn't look like it would rain today. The idea came to him out of nowhere- he had been planning to just take Naruto to the mall or watch a movie (even though he still didn't quite trust his son's wondering attention span) or maybe the zoo, but once it came to mind, he couldn't quite shake it off again, even though it cost him a lot of effort to dare voice it.

'…Naru?'

'Muh?' he tried to ignore the way Gaara's' mannerism had rubbed on his son, instead smiling tentatively. 'You wanna go out?'

'To the park?'

'Ah, no…' he fiddled with his fork lightly, poking at a piece of apple with the prongs. 'I was thinking, since I have the time and, well, maybe just go out and go somewhere, and maybe stay the night…' Naruto was looking at him with wide eyes, his expression surprised, but not really discouraging.

'And we could come back on Sunday in the afternoon or something.' It wasn't like if they had anyone to take care of on Saturdays anymore. He could afford to disappear for 36 hours when no one would care where they went.

That's what Kushina had loved to do the most, traveling. Every month they'd move cities, hitchhike to forests, get lost in the middle of nowhere at every turn of the map- and a part of him greatly missed that. He might not have had his wife's taste for sleeping on a park bench, but he had still loved the sense of adventure of it.

'…go where?' That was a good question, and the immediate answers were obvious. Wind country was a little too flat for any good hiking place, and the idea of an easily lost and definitely too daring little boy wondering around where too many trees stood together didn't bode well with him.

'The beach.' Naruto looked at him as if he wanted to make sure he wasn't joking, then burst into silly giggles.

'But daddy, it's too cold to swim!'

'I know it is, Lisku.' he also smiled. 'It's winter. But it's also the best season to pick seashells.'

Maybe. He wasn't quite sure about it, but it sounded about right. Besides, it was only five hours away or so. They could rent a car- no, scratch that. they could take a bus. Minato barely knew what to do with a normal car, he didn't even want to think about driving one of the weird Sunanian ones where everything was in the wrong side of the car. Besides, he wasn't even sure if he still had his driving license. Or of it counted in Wind country. Naruto was again staring at him silently, but after a moment or two he broke into a broad grin, a light flush of excitement on his face.

'Okay!' It would be nice to have his father all for himself for a day or two, and have him away from all the things that stressed him- and the truth was that Minato had never asked Naruto if they wanted to have an adventure like that together. Maybe he was finally realizing he was a big boy now?

Minato smiled back.

'Okay, let's do this. You finish breakfast and call sensei and Ibiki-san so he'll know we won't be here during the weekend, and I'll go buy the tickets online now, and then we gotta hurry and pack some things-' For the first time in a while, Minato had the odd feeling things would be all right. He knew himself well enough to know it was a passing feeling and that he'd be back to worrying over his own shadow in a day's time, but for right now, it was enough.

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On the other side of the town, Sabaku no Daichi parked his car on his usual, metaphorically tagged spot (like he always did), closed the doors (like always), went to his home (like usual) and sat down on the chair (nothing different here either). Somehow, nothing changed. He didn't have his kids with himself – his liver, his lungs, his veins and blood – and yet, no meteor fell on people's head, there was no flood and there was no massive eruption of the volcano on the other side if the street. He heard someone whistling a song, which was not unusual on that kind of day – it was sunny and warm, even bad people happened to be a little better during those – and nothing.

Another normal day in everyone's life. He could as well go on through it. So he swept the table (the crumbs from breakfast made it sticky and he, as usual, forgot to do that right after), he turned on the radio and he took out the trash. He also hummed to some most known songs, washed his hands and cared to clean his shoes as they went bad during walking through the puddles of water and mud. Then he saw the boxes he had packed and started slowly moving them to the car – first, the heaviest and most useless ones to the trunk, then the lightest to the back seats.

The last one ended on passenger's seat on his side, having the things of daily use in it. He covered It with newspaper so nobody would think of breaking in because they saw something expensive (like if he had something expensive). Then he got back to his clean – or rather, clear – house and looked up the food he had in the fridge. There were eggs, lettuce and even slice of bacon – it wasn't the best quality of meat, but it sounded like something good after the days of starving. Now, that he didn't have kids, he didn't have to share. He could eat it all. So, why not.

When the kettle whistled at him, he had already plate full of eggs and bacon, along with the sandwich with lettuce and cheese. He poured himself the tea – real tea – and sat down as the radio started humming the one of the oldies, but definitely not forgotten – 'Don't worry, be happy' by the band nobody really cared to remember for as it was their only catchy tune worth remembering. Yes. Life wasn't so bad at all.

Only that when he looked up he saw three empty chairs that were supposed to be filled along with the little dabs left on the verge of the table by Kankuro's knife ('How many times I told you that not everything wooden in this house is for your sculpting!'), the stain from cherry-currant juice that sank into the table so deep that even if he scratched the surface it didn't want to get off ('Gaara! I told you to look out, didn't I?') and that stupid little rubber band from Temari she didn't wore in her hair today, because her clothes were white ('And green doesn't suit the white clothes, daddy.'). And his eggs tasted like shavings, bacon was too cold, the tea was too hot and everything was so irritating and wrong and out of place, because it was too quiet, too spacey, too lonely!...

The dishes landed on the floor. Eggs mixed with porcelain, plates broke and tea sank into the carpet, pushed off the table like the things that were worn out, outdated and out of use. Oblivious to prices, money and his lack of proper food, Daichi leaned over the table and cried, cried and cried so long until he thought he couldn't anymore and then he cried even longer.

He wasn't hungry! He didn't need tea! He only wanted his kids!... The void they left couldn't be filled by any kind of food, even if it was cooked by the kings. He didn't want that anymore; it was only the first day – not even a whole day yet, and he felt like if he could scrape the paint off the walls from the pain. The face of Temari, the most vivid one, couldn't leave him alone. If he could only hold her better, firmer, stronger – if he was only quicker, smarter, better! Maybe then… maybe then his kids would be still with him. And now, he had no one.

Long time passed before his sobbing arms ceased the shaking and even longer before he dared to move from his curled position. His throat hurt from the occasional howls he let out under his breath, his nose was stuffed and leaking and probably red – just as his eyes. He knew they were red – such puffiness didn't go outside of him on its own.

What could he do now? What was he supposed to do now? His kids were legally taken from him, he was left on his own, without help and without any sort of consolidation for what had happened. Of course, he could try to phone Yashamaru – he was sure that now, after he won the battle, he'd easily give the kids to the receiver to let him talk with them. But what he was supposed to say? They'll surely ask him where he was, why wasn't he coming for them, why did he leave them – at least Temari would, he knew that. And he had no answers to those. The only worse thing of it wall was Gaara's possible happiness at all that happened. It wasn't impossible. It wasn't impossible at all.

Gods, he wanted to die. He was so useless, he couldn't even protect three little children that depended on him from whatever the life tossed on him, and now they couldn't count on him anymore. He was a failure of the failures when it came to being a parent. A father. He was the worst father on the world.

But he loved them. Dear gods in heavens did know he did. Why did this have to happen to him? They were all that mattered to him, so why were they taken away? Was it a punishment? Divine penalty for everything he did wrong in his life? Ever since he had ran away from his home to marry Karura, the life went bad on him. Maybe he really shouldn't have married her. Maybe he should have had respected his parent's will more. Maybe he should have forgotten about her all along, as he didn't even deserve the fruits that love bore. Or maybe it was because he was in this mess at all.

He hiccupped one, two times more, then sniffed as he slowly rose from the chair. Suddenly, the house, the so small house of his became so big, so spacious – that it became draining his lungs. He couldn't be here anymore. He was going to be away, but he couldn't stand being inside those walls now. Not in the place where there was this stain, those jabs, this rubber band. Not where the radio played the fairy tale tune.

So he grabbed his best suit as he still hadn't took it off and went outside the street. He was sure he looked comical as he didn't even care to wipe his tears, but he didn't care. Nothing really mattered. Only the wind outside told him it did, even if only a bit. So he reached out to his pocket to get out a handkerchief from it and along it, his cell phone. (Kankuro's friend's phone). He felt so lonely. Without much of thinking, he opened the phone book and chose one of the three numbers that figured there. This one was the one he had maybe, maybe should have touched days ago.

Minato Uzumaki's phone. There. He remembered his name. it wasn't that hard, was it? Now, that nothing really mattered, his brain finally decided to get it out of his memory. But even if he stood on the wind and the rays of setting sun, nobody answered the call. The phone wasn't turned off, but the voice mail turned on rather quickly – so either he was left off somewhere or out of reach. Slowly, disappointed, he closed off the connection. He couldn't count on anything in his life even at the moment like this.

He looked at the two remaining numbers – Yashamaru's and the phone services' one and closed the cell completely. He was not going to use any of the remaining ones. Not here. Not now. Maybe he should use the third one. But somehow, he doubted it would be of any use.

So he wandered around, aimlessly, not wanting to go back home until the pale moon finally shone above his head, chilling the air to the bone. The previous day was warm, but it seemed that the weather was just as fickle as his emotions today and decided to get colder. When he noticed that, his face was completely numb, both from crying he made while walking around (only a few tears, but his nose was clogged nonstop and that didn't help) and the low temperature.

Instinctively, he entered the 24h shop near the gas station, not really trying to think how he wandered there at such time of the day (or rather, night). He didn't really feel like eating, even if he didn't really eat for the whole day, but he knew he could look up some useless luxury – like bar of chocolate or chips, something that would be completely useless, but would help him occupy both his mind and stomach. Even without hunger, he felt the acid slowly coming back to his throat in heartburn. Maybe Cranships. Yeah, Cranships sounded like a good brand of junk food. And Meelka. That was an expensive good brand of chocolate.

He grabbed mindlessly the bar with blue cow on it and he was about to proceed to the counter, when his eyes fell on the alcohol. Vodka. Forty percent of clean spirits. Abruptly, he felt a big craving for a drink. He didn't drink from helluva long time, because alcohol was addictive, because it cost money, because it made him act stupid and because it hurt his health. And he had to stay healthy, logical, clear and thrifty for his kids, because if he didn't then who would? His kids had only him on this world and without him, only the worst could happen to them.

And now, when it happened anyway, he was alone and he didn't have to think about anyone anymore. Without much care the chips and the sweets were put back on the shelves where some kind of tires stood and instead, the small wallet he owned was taken out.

'Three liters of Stolichnaya.' he muttered, tossing the bills on the counter so carelessly, like if he had never before worshipped a coin he found on the street. He also didn't care very much about the remaining coins that were given to him as he tossed them carelessly into his pocket, not even bothering to put them in the wallet. Then he walked out, holding three bottles of alcohol right into the cold night.

The first bottle was opened a few steps away from the store, so far only because the nut got stuck and he forgot a bit how to do that, out from the years of not touching such containers. The moment he was at the door of his own flat, he already managed to down half of it.

'Hey, Sabaku!' he heard somewhere from behind the curtain of fog that seemed to cover his head in the cozy cotton of alcoholic delirium 'I know you had lost in the court and all, but as I sad – tomorrow you have to move out!'

'Frugoff!' he yelled back, swinging the bottle at the buzzing noise that followed, the words he decided to block off and not care for. The liquid got spilt thanks to that and he looked even more similar to the man he was talking to, despite already having reddened eyes, but even if he knew that, he wouldn't care. He slammed the door behind him and sat down at the moment his knees gave up under him, not even carrying himself to the nearest chair. There, he bought himself a painkiller and now he was going to soothe the pain. There. And he drank until he passed out.

Cheers.

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It was a nice small vacation. Uzumakis had gotten the bus tickets early and were already at the bus terminal by eleven thirty AM, and at the beach by five PM. It was a little too dark already by then, but they had quickly found accommodations (they had chosen a small pension instead of a hostel) with a small but clean and nicely decorated room with a single bed, and then they had run off to walk around the beach and take some clue as to where they would be going the next morning.

Walking had taken them right to exploring, and by the time they were back, Naruto was ready to devour a truck, with driver and all, and Minato, who had passed on the convenience store brought rice balls and hadn't eaten anything since breakfast (or much for the week, for the matter) wasn't really far behind. They found a small and utterly deserted restaurant, where only a small group of chatty teenagers were cooped in a corner (Naruto engaged each and all in conversation) and they had ordered.

The idea was a plate of kid-friendly spaghetti with meat balls for his little carnivorous ox and the older blond had felt daring enough to ask for breaded prawn and calamari with some salad, because Minato might have all the issues in the world with a slice of fatty bacon, but somehow eating seafood brought none of the usual remarks about suffering creatures with same rights to life everyone else had. Most of the dinner was spent with Naruto making loud remarks on how disgusting his father's dinner was and some less than savory comparisons on what the prawns looked like under the bread. The rest was Minato eating what was left of the spaghetti when Naruto actually tried the seafood and found that looking like Freddy Krueger's fingers or not, prawns were pretty delicious when smothered in lemon and tartar sauce.

After bidding the girls goodbye, they had walked around the sleepy little town that was only too eager to accommodate what pretty much was their only pair of tourist, Naruto had made him walk around practically the whole length of the place and only tried every single orange cap they could find. And there was a surprising variability of such. Once his son had acquired the local creepiest hat – A prawn in his head, because only a person who had the mutant brother of Goofy nightly trying to eat his brain would feel remotely compelled to carry a giant sea bug on his head- they had gone back to pension and gone straight to bed.

Naruto was up before he woke up the next morning, and already devouring a pile of toast the owner of the place was nice enough to prepare for them. They had gone to the beach, picked up seashells (they had actually found some really pretty ones, but there was no way to convince Naruto to get back on the sand and off his shoulders once one of the biggest one sprouted legs and walked away towards the waves) gone back to the restaurant and had more seafood –clams and more prawns. Naruto liked the clams, but nowhere as much as he had liked the prawns – and then they had found a little half dead arcade that actually had the sort of games Minato still remembered how to play.

It was a nice day, but despite the fact they hadn't done much, they were both pretty tired by the time they had to go back to the bus terminal. The little blond had slept through most of the trip, and even when they arrived he didn't bother to wake up for anything more than a short trip to the bathroom. Minato didn't bother him either, knowing he had kinder in the morning tomorrow, and decided he'd sleep early tonight as well, belatedly thinking he hadn't even bothered to check his cell when he had gotten home.

The next morning, while his little blond inhaled some breakfast and told him all the things he was going to tell everyone at kinder about what they had done (which included taking the prawn hat and explaining in detail how to eat the real thing) he saw the missing calls he had gotten. Immediately, he went back to feeling uneasy, but it was too early for him to do anything about it either way. By the time he did dare to call Sabaku and see what the man wanted to yell at him for this time, it was a little past nine AM.

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The first thing that greeted Daichi next morning was banging on the door. It was loud and quick and it threatened to break the door, so logic told him it would be good to actually get up and open it. The other, bigger side of him however said that it was better just to not to move and stare at the ceiling at the wrong side of his flat. He fell asleep on the spot he fell right after entering his house, and that meant that he was dirty, his best suit looked like his worst and that he reeked of alcohol. Not to mention that his head hurt like hell. He needed a painkiller. Or two.

But because he didn't have a painkiller or two, he simply grabbed the bottle that lied nearby and drank a nice long gulp out of it. There. That's better. It seemed he downed a whole liter and only opened the second when he passed out. One of the vodkas still lied sealed, warm now, unlike the frozen feeling he felt yesterday when he opened his first one. The banging didn't cease. Maybe he should have really open those door. Or maybe not.

Or maybe yes. Suddenly, whatever was that he ate yesterday decided that it was good to get back the same way it was let in and the redhead, wanting it or not, had to get up if he didn't want to vomit all over the carpet. So he got up and vomited all over the carpet, as he didn't really hold it down until he got to the bathroom. Great. So now, that he had puked all over his the best tie, he could as well open those damned doors.

'Quiet!' he yelled, despite the painful ringing in his brain 'I'm coming!'

Boy, wasn't it fun, that hangover. Despite the fact he had remembered everything and that he felt twice as bad as he felt yesterday, it was all great. Oh. And the tie. He had only managed to undo it when he opened the door. People that stood there were surely not anyone he knew. Their white suits and golden rings didn't look very friendly though.

'G'mornin', we are new locators…' said one then his fake smile wavered a little bit. Must've been this special aroma of his cologne that had enamored him 'Are you Sabaku?...'

'Yeah.' he muttered, then hiccupped, feeling that he didn't vomit everything in the end, but he held that one down. 'I am already packed, but if you wouldn't mind, gentlemen, I'll clean the mess I left after the wild party over there…'

'Get out now or you will see 'wild party'.' said the other rather aggressively, but the first one stopped him.

'Woah, woah, woah, woah, Kamoi. Let the guy live. He had obviously partied high.' The other said with a little sarcastic and a little exaggerated tone 'We can go for a walk, we have a few things to do… in the meantime Mr. Sabaku will clean all of that and when we will be back, everything will be clear we won't even notice that someone lived here. Right?'

Daichi had only stared back quietly.

'Right.' he managed to say finally. Two suited gentlemen turned their backs on him. 'Two hours.' said the aggressive one and then, they left. He looked a bit like a woman, that bad guy. Daichi didn't think about it much. Another wave of puke voided his head from any unnecessary thoughts.

An hour and forty minutes later, he was after cleaning his own pukes and the mess he left from food yesterday. He also took out the last trash and managed to get both of his bottles into his car. After his head cleared a bit, it was easy to see that the next locators of his flat will be no more, no less but members of mafia. He didn't know what kind of mafia worked here in Suna, but he was sure of one thing – unless he wanted to get shot, he had to clean after himself the best he could. So he did.

At the one hour and fifty four minutes he took out the last of his things, which included bathroom accessories and the clothes he wore on himself. He also took the last shower, which really was a pain, but his logic clearly told him that the next shower might not happen in a long time, so he had better used it till he could. With the head throbbing in the rhythm of his beating heart, he closed the door and left the keys in the lock. In here, it was the most mindless thing he could do, but since he was the one getting away, he could care less. Before he could see his brief acquaintances going back from their walk, he started his car and slowly, painfully drove away anywhere but there.

And because the sound of the engine was also adding to his discomfort, as soon as he entered better streets, he found a free parking lot and stopped there, observing the world from behind the glass. A little above an hour later small droplets of snow started falling from the sky, covering the grey streets and everything that melted before, but Daichi didn't last to see that. With second bottle in his hand, he calmly sailed away on the drunken boat toward the land of Morpheus.

The rest was history – he woke up in the evening, got out from the car only to vomit what he had consumed and got back to the not very warm, but surely warmer insides of the machine that the outside. The night was even colder than the one before and he didn't remember where he put those found mittens. Frankly, he hardly cared. He tried to listen to the radio, but as only classical music didn't break his nerves, soon he turned it off. The night was spent in delirium, in which he, from time to time took a swing from the third bottle, played with his phone talking something to someone if he picked up the phone (and that depended on if the numbers he hit at random matched anyone's cell; funny, no?).

In the end he has got bored of talking to people at random and decided to call to the ones in his address book, but no one answered. So then, he ate the bread he had on the top of one of his boxes and went out to walk out the alcohol a bit. It ended up in reminding himself too much of the fact he was alone and robbed of his children, so he ventured to some market where he bought yet another cheap bottle of alcohol (this time it was orange, he wasn't sure what it contained, but it was bittersweet). Before he has got back to his car he managed to pee under some tree and mistook two other cars for his own, getting angry at the whole world that his own keys didn't want to let him inside his own automobile. And when he finally got there, he drank until he slept.

He woke up the next morning with yet another hangover and the no vision to the world. Apparently, it snowed so much, it covered the windows of his car. He turned on the engine to warm the car a bit so it wouldn't freeze and he got out on the chilly air to remove the fluff (more like 'white puke' he thought sarcastically; lately, his humor dropped very low) and then got back to the car to not freeze along with everyone else. He thought briefly about wearing something warmer, but in the end, he didn't do it. It was too troublesome. His head hurt.

He turned on the radio. As it seemed, it was nearly seven a.m. and the day was pretty. At least that's how they said in the news. Resigning from another alcohol for the breakfast (he still had half of bottle of each) he managed to pull out the cheese from his remaining food and ate it listening to things he heard about the world. It was all dull and uninteresting, but he let it play, let it drill his hangover and lied on his driver's seat, looking up at the grey and snowing sky, mindlessly counting the dots, passing the time without any want or need to do anything with his life.

When was the last time he had so much time? Surely not when he needed it. He didn't make snowman with his kids this year. Or the last. He hadn't done so many things with them. And he should have. What was this all sacrificing for then? Why was he working so hard? In the end, the only thing he had out of it were bottles of alcohol and… no, actually, it were only bottles of alcohol. Joy. He looked outside at the people who went through his parking lot and drove in and out, driving themselves to work. The chatter of their kids made him want to go out and shout at them to hurry up, but in the end, his lack of motivation didn't let him do it.

Instead, he looked into the mirror and started counting hair on his chin. He definitely needed a shave. There should be a shaver around his bathroom tools somewhere up there… When he was around getting also his shaving gel, his cell phone rang. He looked at it for a second, not really believing his own ears, but hey, what the heck. Maybe his operator wanted to talk.

'Good morning, it's snowing.' he said to the speaker once he opened the receiver, not even trying to check who it was 'My car is covered all in the snow. Just letting you know.'

There was silence in the other side of the line, and maybe if he hadn't been inebriated he might have recognized that particular brand of shocked quietness by now.

'…okay.' The younger man answered uncertainly. This time, for variety, Sabaku wasn't raving mad or screaming he'd chop him to bits. But what he said sounded a little like a joke, and Minato wasn't in the mood to be played with. 'Um, Sabaku-san? I got your calls today, is there anything you wanted?'

It was Daichi's time to turn quiet. After two days he lost hope of getting in touch with the man forever, but it seemed, that apparently he was wrong. Slowly, he quieted the volume of his radio down and let go of his shaving accessories where he found them. Now… what?

'I…' he started and looked up at his dull car ceiling (very similar with his flat ceiling). What was he supposed to say? After all he phoned to him when he was desperate, now his desperation turned into numbness, along with courage. But that was one call. And the others? 'I'm sorry… calls?'

'Yes... I'm sorry I didn't answer when you called we were out of the city.' and why was he giving the man explanations? He certainly didn't deserve them. Belatedly, Minato thought he shouldn't have said anything at all and let the man think he hated him or something.

'That's… okay.' And then, the face of a little cute blue-eyed blond came up. No, it wasn't okay. You were out of the city for who knows what, but probably at the family's home, enjoying your time with your son and my kids were taken away by that bastard, and now he couldn't even see them more often than once a week, and it hurt to be apart for so long and…

He felt, that despite everything he was taught in life, he was starting to fall apart again, including the tears.

'I just wanted…' to tell it to someone who would listen and because I don't know anyone else I tried to contact you but you probably wouldn't do it anyway because I've already turned you down anyway so… so… What did he want to do in the end? Besides wanting to have a drink. It was so easy to forget when he was sloshed. '…sorry. I wanted to say sorry. For what I did. That's all.'

An excuse as good as any other.

There was another of those silent pauses, the blond honestly not knowing what to think. Yes the redhead had apologized before, but sincerely? He hadn't expected him to try and talk to him again, or try to call him or anything.

'…it's okay.' Only it wasn't, but what was one supposed to say? 'No, what you said to me hurt and I hope you rot in hell?' not only was it childish, but it also wasn't true, he didn't hate the man. He just made him nervous. 'Don't worry about it. It's understandable.'

Daichi blinked, uncertain and looked around himself, trying to find something that could help him to pull through the awkwardness, but he didn't find anything like that. He was forgiven, it was kind of reassuring, but that didn't change anything to him in current situation. If he had started talking about himself now, it would come out as if he tried to find an excuse to only talk about his pain. And it wasn't that way.

'Yes. I think so. Thanks.' he muttered and checked the amount of gas. The tank was still almost full. Good. 'So… thanks for calling me back.'

He waited a moment, not knowing what else to do. And then, with a quick 'goodbye', he turned the phone off. Gods, he was such a savage sometimes. So, to compensate himself for his lack of courage here, he showed it somewhere else – shamelessly he took the bottle with orange alcohol and started to sip it in small apathetic gulps. There. He was brave. So brave.

Minato was left staring at his phone, not knowing what to think. When the redhead wasn't busy describing in gory detail what he planned to do with his fire axe, he was saying the weirdest thing. But if this was what he needed to calm himself down, Minato didn't think it was that much to ask of him. He had meant to ask about the kids, but now that the man had hung up, he didn't dare calling him back. Instead, he opened his laptop and ran a quick search- none of the kids name appeared, except Kankuro's on regards of some art-related news from two years ago. he supposed that at some level, no news were the best sort of good news.


	26. 26: Bench

Brave. He was brave. He was driving his car with one hand! That's how brave he was!

'Do you see that, suckers?' he shouted to the cars on his left, but he forgot to open the window, so nobody heard him. It didn't matter though, opening it would mean he'd have to let go of the bottle he was holding, and it were the last remnants of his alcohol, so he would rather not lose it. Somehow down the one-before-the-last-one bottle an idea came up to him – to drive like he drove when he was young and stupid, only now he wasn't so stupid anymore (at least that's what he thought. He was married, and he had wife and, and, a job, and wore a suit and everything!) and since he was not buried under the baggage of responsibility for three little passengers, he could drive however the hell he wanted.

He drove like that, not even getting a glance from the police at all, even if his vision was blurred – the old habit of holding the dead still was even stronger than his alcohol. And thus, it quickly became boring. He found a good place to park and stopped his car with a loud screech, only to look into the mirror and drink up to it.

'Yeah! That's how I am! Master of the roads! Freakin' tsar!' he growled, all buff and almost tripped as he opened the door and wanted to get out trying to drink and step out at the same time. He finally managed to do it without landing on his nose as he downed two more gulps of his bottle. 'Now where the hell am I.'

He knew that place. Somehow, he recognized it. But he wasn't sure, so he decided to walk around and see for himself. It didn't take long however – his feet got tired and he was cold – he decided to rest. Now where could he rest and drink the rest of his liquid in silence…

'Tha… theee thee-has-no-nuts…' he read out of some freaky colorful plate that seemed to stand out proudly even if it was covered in the snow. A lame joke, he had to admit. But at least it worked. Not on him, of course. But it looked like a good place to sit down on the bench nearby. When he did, the clockwork nearby sung around eleven – or maybe twenty seven bells. A nice place to rest for a while.

#+#+#+#+#+#

It wasn't like Minato to pry. Generally if there were too many people watching in one direction, it meant a fight, someone had gotten hurt, an accident- none of these were the sort of things Minato was fond of getting into or even interested in. It wasn't strange that while he did notice a few of the parents that had come early to pick their kids look into the nearby park and mutter among themselves, he didn't feel particularly inclined to ask, other than to give a vague look in the direction. Of course, without his glasses he couldn't see clearly much further than a couple dozen meters, which probably explained that while he saw someone sitting on the bench, he didn't see anything particularly strange of it and just passed the strawberry-red haired and blonde women gossiping at the entrance with a small smile and a nod. It was a bit too early, still a few minutes until the kids were left out, and he supposed he could try luck on the small convenience store on the next block and see if he could find a decent package of smokes and some of those cherry tic tacs he liked so. Seriously, what happened with his brand? Had it been discontinued or so? He should have Googled that earlier instead of calling Sabaku…

At the kindergarten entrance indeed, things were happening. It wasn't a fight, though as some suspected, it wasn't very far from it. As for now, nobody reacted, waiting for the main teacher to react to the matter. And what has happened?

Nothing much, at least so it seemed at the beginning. At first, Daichi only sat at the bench like every homeless drunkard would and from time to time took a swig of remaining alcohol from his bottle, oblivious to the fact that he was being covered more and more in snow, looking more and more like a decoration, blending into the background. He was not feeling though – and that one was the doing of the alcohol and the alcohol only.

At some point, even that had ended. So, losing his interest in the emptiness, Daichi left the bottle on the floor and let it be covered in the snow, all the same.

He wasn't sure why he was here, wherever was said here, anymore. He didn't know also what he was supposed to do and what was going on. In his mind there was only one thing – a piece of the memory when he dressed up his children for school – at first he made Temari dress the maroon sweater, buttoning her up, then he hid Kankuro's brown hair under the kitty cap, smoothening it a little with care and then he covered Gaara in a little too big coat after his brother, tying the small scarf around the teddy's neck, because why not, and then they were ready to go, safely warm from any wheatear in the outside. And then he buttoned up Temari's maroon sweater, smiling at her, smoothened Kankuro's hair under the kitty cap… and yadda, yadda, yadda, repeat from beginning like a broken record.

It was all that mattered. He wasn't sure what's happened after as there was no after and also, there was no before. People passed him, small and big, ignorant, neutral, and he sat and waited for something. He didn't recognize any of them. Only when the door of the kindergarten opened and a big man with a beard and usual kindergartenish apron appeared, something clicked inside his head. That man. He knew that man from another dimension of his current reality (the sweater, the cap, the coat with scarf).

'You…' he muttered quietly, muted by the sound of the snow falling. Slowly, his brain started to function and he saw that there were much many more people around him than he saw when he was starring at his feet.

'You!...' he repeated, louder this time, grabbing the man's attention as he got up. The cold got to his bones suddenly, sharply, but he ignored it, just as he ignored his wet neck and burning cheeks 'Where are my kids?...'

The man had only stared back at him, unmoving big blob of a blur or maybe a blurred blob and he said something. Daichi didn't understand what it was but he didn't think it was important.

'I came for my kids.' he explained himself, walking up to the man 'For… Gaara and Kankuro… and Temari. Temari! Daddy's here!' he shouted suddenly. Somehow, in his mind it sounded like a right thing to do. Some people stared at him but he didn't find anything wrong with that. The man said something again, moving his hand out further in front of him, stopping him (how, he had no idea, because he knew he kept walking and the kindergarten was not getting closer, and it should?...). He tried to listen to him, but it all came like from the deep well, blocked by the noise coming out from nowhere.

It reminded him of the radio buzz. Or maybe ocean waves.

'Kankuro! Get ready to go back home!' The man said something again, but as it was just a babble, he didn't bothered listening to it to the end. 'Gaara!' he shouted. Then some child passed the man, grabbing his attention, so he caught it by a hand. It was blonde. And a girl.

'Temari?' he more said than asked. But then the kid looked at him and started crying. No, it wasn't Temari. If anything, he could recognize his kids by sound of their voice. He let go of her. 'Where are they? Where are my kids?'

But as nobody answered him, he went further, pushing the man back to the entrance and blocked it with his hands, looking around, making people inside also look at him.

'I'm looking for my kids! Where did you hide them?' he said to no one in particular, but because the bearded giant was the closest, he looked at him 'I'm not moving out from here until you give them back!'

Asuma stared at him, puzzled and truthfully, dumbfounded. It was obvious that the man was drunk as he reeked of alcohol and his stare seemed to be too fogged to even recognize what he was seeing, but he had no idea what to do. Sure, he could have pushed him out, but then the man could get police on his back for breaking his privacy as it happened before to him. He would rather not go through that again and as long as Sabaku had only stood there and hadn't attacked anyone (and he didn't seem to even try) he couldn't push him out as the one defending himself or others. So he once again pushed at his arm, trying to get it off the door frame.

'Mr. Sabaku, I have no idea what are you talking about.' he repeated once again, trying to sound as clear and understandable as he could, as when he talked to the youngest of his students 'Your kids aren't here as you didn't bring them here for a few days now. Please, let go of the door, you're hindering my job.'

By the time Minato was back, there was a bigger crowd, noticeably closer to the door of the kinder. Most of it was composed by women, though the dark haired boy he had noticed on some of his previous runs in to pick Naruto up was also there, dark eyes and a cold frown directed to whomever Asuma was talking to, as the teacher's large mass practically completely covered said person. Distractedly (and not for the first time) Minato wondered if the man had been in the wrestling team of his school, and what the hell was a man of such physique working taking care of little kids. The obsessive paranoid convinced his son could be snatched any moment secretly loved the idea of a man built like the terminator being in charge of it, and the same obsessive paranoid didn't like the idea of such a young kid close to whatever was making such a ruckus. Even if such a ruckus sounded vaguely familiar, but let the one blessed with muscles del with that.

'Hi, are you here for your brother?' he asked as he put a hand on the boy's shoulder, just long enough for him to stop looking in the other direction and up at him, then smiled lightly. 'You should go pick him up now, I bet he's waiting for you.' Yes, he was a shining beacon of subtlety in a dark world filled with forwardness, but as long as it got the job done…

The boy had looked at him for a long pensive moment, then his lips curled up in a nice smile.

'I surely will once that's over.' he said in a deep, a little too deep for his appearance voice, but that's what puberty did to you. Then he turned around to observe the entrance just as calm and patient as before. As far as he saw, the problem was only disturbing and not a dangerous one. He and his brother were taught well to wait through such were people better equipped than him solved it for them. And surely, Asuma, being as patient kinder teacher as he was, decided that he was not as patient as when it came to children.

'I'm sorry, everyone? Can I have your attention?' he said above the man's arm, making sure that at least front of the crowd listened to him 'Now I'm going to push that man out of the door because he is being a trouble to society. If anyone asks, my intentions are void of harm. Is that right?' And when some of the parents nodded, along with one woman shouting 'Just do it already!' he simply caught the man by his arms and pushed him out of the door. Sabaku could have been training some sports as he felt the muscles through that suit – and surely, they were something – but years of ignoring it and alcohol made him twice as weak as he could be. Not to mention that he barely knew what was going on.

'Hey! What are you doing?' he shouted, surprised as he did a few steps back 'There are my kids there, what are you-!' And then he stumbled backward even more as the man just kept pushing and landed right on his back off the safety three steps of the front. The snow was cold and his back suddenly hurt and everyone was suddenly loud and so loud, laughing at who knows what… and nobody seemed to understand.

'What are you doing? Stop it!' he shouted, trying to get out free, but the man simply flipped him on his face and caught his hands on his back. Maybe if he was more sober he could free himself out of such grip, but now he just tensed his muscles and nothing happened 'There are my kids there!... Give me back my kids!...'

'There are no kids of yours here, Mr. Sabaku.' said Asuma calmly, taking a deeper breath. Well, that went easier than he thought it would. 'And stop struggling or I'll call the police. Okay? I'm sorry for the trouble, everyone. You can get back your kids now, I'll come to you in a moment.'

And as people started passing through the entrance back and forth, Asuma sat on the man for a few seconds, gradually loosening the grip until he finally let go of him at all. The redhead didn't move from his position now.

'I'm sorry, but I had to.' said Asuma in a bit defeated tone, feeling a bit sorry for the man. He had no idea what was going on but surely, whatever went through in his life wasn't very pleasant. The sole look of his unshaved face spoke for it clearly. 'If you calmed yourself down, then please, go away from this place. You had scared enough of people for today.'

The man didn't nod nor move at all as Asuma stood up from the ground, looking at him for a moment. He wondered if the man could have passed out from drinking too much or maybe hitting himself on the head, but a few seconds later Daichi slowly stood up from the ground, brushing his wet hands on his wet suit.

'M'sorry.' he mumbled quietly as he looked at no one in particular 'I'm sorry.' And then he simply walked out to the bench on which he sat before and curled up on it like if he was wounded.

'Please, go home!' shouted Asuma to him as he turned to take care of his kids. 'It's too cold for you to sit there in such clothes! Take care of your kids or yourself!...' Daichi only shook his head slowly, defeated.

'I have no kids.' he mumbled as he started crying, easily pushed toward every possible direction by the alcohol in his veins 'I have no kids. No kids.'

At the boy's answer, Minato smiled a little uneasily, but stayed next to him simply out of concern, because it wasn't as if he could leave a little kid like that alone, even among the growing herd of mothers. He looked to be around sixth grade, and safe neighborhood or not, Minato wouldn't have dreamt of sending such a young kid to pick his considerably younger brother up, fancy school uniform or not. Now that it was closer, though, he realized why the voice sounded so familiar, even if the last times he had heard it the tone had been considerably less slurred. Sabaku.

The blond actually considered pinching himself and maybe rubbing his eyes cartoon-style to make sure he wasn't imagining things, but as Asuma turned to address everyone, it became painfully clear it wasn't a figment of his imagination. Unless it was a shared hallucination, but of course, he couldn't be that lucky, could he….?

'…_kurwa_.' The blond muttered under his breath, expression disbelieving. What the hell was Sabaku doing here now?

When the teacher turned around, he automatically ducked a little, suddenly glad for the crowd. That morning he had apologized to the teacher and he had been sincere about it, he actually did feel pretty bad about what he had said, but that didn't really mean he hadn't meant what he had said about the man using him to deal with Sabaku because he hadn't wanted to be bothered with himself, or that he still feel slightly irritated about it. He didn't want to be singled out and be specifically asked in front of this people to take care of Sabaku, because that would be a bit too manipulative at a moment where he still didn't quite feel like being so, or at least not for Asuma.

He was glad that it got quickly solved, but even though Asuma didn't use force and it thankfully didn't come to blows (which he honestly had been kind of expecting), the act the teacher had to literally throw the man down to the floor made him feel worse than what he actually expected. Now the man was clad in a half wet crumpled suit and then he just walked back to the bench- and now he supposed that's what the women had been talking about, the thing on the bench, that is- and sat now, the snow piling on him slowly as he cried.

And it wasn't snowing lightly either. It wasn't a storm or anything, but certainly not weather for one to sit clad only in one's suit… didn't the man have a jacket or anything? Stupid question, he had only seen the man with a coat once, and he had put it on his kids, and then he hadn't seen it on him again.

'…_kurwa mać_.'

As the mass of parents (and little dark haired boy) slowly drifted inside to pick up their kids, Minato couldn't help but stay right where he was for a moment longer, looking back at the man's shaking shoulders, wanting to go away and ignore it and feeling like pure shit for so much as wanting to. Realistically, Sabaku was bad news. He had brought him nothing but trouble, had complicated things needlessly, and he wasn't a person Minato could get along with, because he was too aggressive, too stubborn, definitely not someone he could like.

Then again, he himself wasn't someone he could like. And Sabaku might have a terrible temper, horrid manners and possibly be a natural ass, but he didn't deserve to be in the snow crying like if the world had ended while a bunch of stuck up parents whispered behind his back. Or at least he'd like to think so.

'Asuma-sensei…' he waited for the man to finish talking with the retreating parents so they'd have an ounce of privacy, his hands curled into fists inside his pockets 'I think I'm going to get Sabaku some coffee, could you keep Naruto with you a few more minutes? It shouldn't take too long.' _Unless he decides to kill me._

The teacher had only looked back at him with a bit more relaxed pose than before.

'Of course, Mr. Uzumaki.' he said as he looked inside the room where the remaining children were waiting for their parents 'I don't mind. Just take my advice, he is too drunk to even understand what's going on around him. Maybe the fall sobered him a bit, but I'm not sure.' he said and scraped the back of his neck a bit 'What a troublesome man…'

'Asuma-sensei…' And with that, his attention went turned to new people entering the room.

The blond nodded absently, not that he was paying much attention. What a mess. Minato usually cried rather easily himself, but he knew it wasn't exactly a manly reaction, much less something members of his sex engaged on frequently. When if it had been, he had the strong idea Sabaku wouldn't be one of them, so he gave the man another minute or two to calm down… Not that the man gave much sign of it. When he couldn't pull it off for any longer, he finally just walked to the half-covered bench, the fresh snow crunching slightly under his feet.

'Sabaku-san…?'

With those words, the red-haired head rose up like if the man was touched by a whip. The image of his teared up face was far from anything classy or manly, especially as he had blue shades under his eyes accompanied with reddened nose and rims of the eyes. The most adequate word would be: hit by a truck. His glassy eyes were still far from sober though.

'I'm sorry…' he muttered again like if he was trying to apologize the whole world, but then his gaze focused, making his eyes widened. Then one of his hand slowly rose up, trying to touch the man on the arm or maybe the abdomen.

That blonde… couldn't it be?... Karura?... Why was she here?...

'I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry…' he repeated tearing up even more. Trying to get up from the bench, but failing considerably as his legs didn't want to support his drunk head anymore 'I didn't meant to… I tried to run… I'm sorry… I'm the worst… You know I didn't want to let go of them…'

But then his gaze focused even more and he stopped. Something wasn't right. That shade. That shade of the blonde wasn't right. It wasn't Karura. It was just someone looking similar. It was… Naruto's dad. Now he saw him. Oh. Now he remembered. The man with little kid. At the idea of the kid he felt another wave of despair coming to him so he sat down and hid his face in his hands and stilled. He already apologized.

Minato almost jerked back, but somehow refrained from the impulse and helped the man when he stumbled forward, not having an idea of what was happening, only that the man would end up sick if he kept rolling around on wet snow like that.

'Sabaku-san, what happened?' he asked gently, looking around. No signs of cute little girl with four ponytails anywhere. 'Where is Temari? Did something happen?'

The redhead only shook his head not removing his hands from his face.

'I have no kids.' he muttered pitifully just as he did before 'I failed.'

'What?' he didn't like the way that sounded. At all. Gently, he tried to pry the man's hands from his face, this not being a moment where he appreciated impaired speech. 'What happened to the kids?'

The redhead had only curled up in himself even more. It was obvious that if he could, he'd hide under his clothes and vanish. But after a long moment where he held his hands close to his face like if he glued them there to super glue, he slowly let go of himself, revealing even more blushed face as the pressure from hands made the blood flow up to his cheeks.

'He took them…' he muttered in a croaky voice, staring at the hands he took off from his face like if he still saw something in them and it was possible he did 'One after another, all of them… but I said everything like I should've!... And he said he was doing the right thing, why was he even working for me then!...'

Took them - the words felt like a kick to the stomach, Minato's heart seeming to stop for a moment before restarting painfully.

'Who took them?' he still had the man's' wrist around his hands, and he squeezed them less than gently. 'Where are the kids? What are you talking about?'

And now he wished Asuma was here, the man definitely needed more sobering so he could remember how to construct full sentences. He wished the man had left him on the snow just a bit more, just enough for him to make sense. Only now the man had slowly rose up his gaze and looked at the blond, his face stone calm in comparison to everything he did for the whole morning. The truth got to his brain in hard drops now in hard way, through small holes.

'He took them.' he repeated in a steady, calm voice and then paused, searching for the right word. He remembered faces, but words escaped him. Ah. There it is. 'Yashamaru.'

And then, like if the wall that blocked his mind, from one crack everything started falling apart, removing his difficulties with speech one after another, making him speak louder, faster and less understandable with every word.

'But I went to the right place and I said- I told them to leave them to me, but they took them anyway and Temari cried and I let go of her!' he said, everything making perfect sense to him 'And I didn't even see them! I haven't seen them for a week! I don't know where they are even… and he said I'm an exceptional worker but he fired me anyway and I don't know, I took the things from my home but and I went and now I'm here and this… this is not justice! Why didn't he work like he should have? I am their father, dammit!...'

Minato understood what the man was saying, at least the clear parts. Yashamaru took the kids. That was terrible. Only there seemed to be something about being fired and kicked out of his house as well, but that… it had to be the alcohol talking, right? Sometimes one had very realistic drinks when talking. He couldn't have lost his kids house and job, all in a week, right? It just wasn't possible.

'Okay, let's… You are all wet.' he drew his hands away from the older man, frowning at the sorry state of his suit, which looked like if he had slept on it, and then decided to roll around in it, and then maybe had a part or two- oh dear. 'And probably cold.' the skin of his wrist hadn't exactly been high on human warmth, at the very least. 'Come on, I'll buy you some coffee.'

And then he had to come pick Naruto up and see what to do with this mess. The man looked at him after a pause, then his gaze fell upon his held hands. It felt warm and it was something nice, for a change.

'Okay.' he said dully, feeling emotionally like a lost little kid – because really, at all that happened, and all that alcohol did to his brain, he saw simply no way out and if someone did, he had to be on the higher level of evolution. 'Coffee sounds good.'

And it did. He hadn't had a coffee from some time. He could have some. Minato blinked, utterly surprised by the sudden docility of the other man, but decided not to ruin his small burst of luck. Smiling lightly, he tugged at the man a bit to get him into the direction of a small diner he had seen nearby. It certainly wasn't a five star restaurant, but that was probably good on its part, considering he didn't think a restaurant would let a man in Sabaku's state get in. Still, he wasn't going to ruin his chances, so once inside, he quickly guided the redhead to sit in a corner and went to ask coffee from the waitress himself, rather than wait for the woman to come.

The woman looked surprised and offered to serve them anyway, but Minato said something stupid on regards of needing to talk something important and somehow convinced her to just give him the pot, giving the redhead's wet hair and reddened face and eyes a curious look as she left two cups in front of the males, before retreating. Minato didn't really waste much time on filling the man's cup, for once glad of the fact the other took it black and as sugarless as possible, but refrained from asking right away, instead preferring to wait a moment or two for the man to compose himself.

Daichi had only stared at it with empty gaze, the one which he held for the most of the walk as he let himself to be guided by the blond like a blind man. Only a moment after he rose his hands to curl them around the cup. It was hot, it warmed up his hands just like it should have. Reminded him of parental home.

'Nice house.' he muttered, not glancing around the room any more than he did when he entered the cozy canteen 'My mom used to have similar kitchen.'

Then he slowly rose it up to his mouth, like an old senile man as his hands shook and his vision couldn't really tell if he held his balance enough to not spill it. As much as he managed to do it without a spill, he burned his mouth on it and spilt it anyway. But for this suit, his best days were ended anyway. He looked at yet another stain on his left side and let out a defeated breath.

'Excuse me.' he said, meaning to apologize in more polite way. Then he simply drank from his cup again, this time more carefully and without spilling the liquid.

'It's all right, take your time.' Minato said pretending to be really busy adding some cream to his own coffee, as if the action took the concentration of a certified surgeon. A guy thing, Kushina would have called it.

The man had only murmured something in response and kept on drinking until he downed the half of the cup. The brown water warmed him up nicely, shaking him off a bit of the alcohol as the blood in his veins started flowing faster, and thus, getting the rid of it faster. He slowly put it down with a bit better vision and hooked his hands together before it, looking down. Now his face, after sitting for some time in the warmer place, slowly started to lose some grotesque red color and started evening out into the usual pale skin. Nice change.

Minato finally finished his thesis on how coffee with milk was made and gave the man a look, not really wanting to jump on the topic, but also not knowing what else to talk about. What sort of idle conversation did you make with a man who just told his gender confused brother-in-law took their kids...?

'Were you calling me about this?' he asked instead, not really thinking before delivering the question. The man didn't move from his position, slowly proceeding the words into his head.

'Yes.' he said quietly. Then, like if he remembered something, he added 'No.' He wasn't sure, but he had this dim feeling he shouldn't admit to the truth. But as for now he wasn't sure why yet.

The blond wasn't sure which was the answer, but the man calling him to tell him what had happened made a bit more sense than calling him to apologize for how he had treated him, as sad as that might sound.

'I'm sorry I wasn't around. There was no cover where we went, so I didn't even bother taking the phone with me.' In the city, the only ones who ever called him were his colleagues at the university, Asuma or Sabaku, and the last two had no reasons to call him at all, while he had ample time to answer to any call from college when he came back. The man had only shrugged apathetically. What did it matter? It's not like the man could help him while he was away. He felt like if someone changed his brain into the raw dough. Everything worked so slowly.

'They're gone.'

'What happened exactly?' Minato asked, thinking there was no way this could be as bad as it sounded. Someone, somewhere was misunderstanding something. 'He can't just take them, didn't you tell the police?'

Daichi sat in silence for a moment and then winced when the meaning of the word got to him. He finally moved, pointing one of his fingers into the table's surface, like if he wanted to show the blond something on the invisible map.

'I… called the police.' he said slowly, then blinked and moved the finger to the east, making invisible path 'Long time ago. It doesn't matter.' He paused then pressed the finger to the point where he held it. Then, his hand relaxed and went back to the first position of two hands hooked one on another. 'Not anymore. They're not mine anymore.' Then he shook his head like if the sole idea disturbed his brain greatly. 'Not anymore, not at all... they said it out loud…'

'I'm sorry.' the blond said carefully, his tone twanged with worry. 'Who said it? I'm… I'm not getting it. '

The in-law took the kids. That he understood clearly, and now he felt stupid for not thinking about it before- no wonder no one had come interrogate him, Sabaku had known all the time where the kids were, but then, why hadn't he simply taken them back? 'Mommy' gave him the creeps, he couldn't deny that, but Sabaku had already given ample proof that he wasn't shy about getting physical if needed. He blinked, remembering the man had had a nasty bruise on the side of his face last time he had seen him. He tried to have a look at it as subtle as possible, but the grayish light from the cloudy sky was hardly ideal, especially in this windowless corner. From what he could gather, it looked a bit discolored, a faint twinge of blue descending below the shadow of his hair.

'Can you tell me what happened after you left from my house that Monday? I've been kind of lost since…' Kidnapped kids that weren't really kidnapped, the redhead acting like if he had split personalities that hadn't been thoughtful enough to inform the other they existed, and Minato who only seemed to get memos that came with two or three weeks of delay. The redhead rose his head and looked at him in silence slightly closing his eyes like if he couldn't focus his vision (which he couldn't really do), then he finally gave up and got back to looking at the table.

'Monday… Tuesday, Sunday, Wednesday…' he started and frowned 'I don't know. Isn't the Monday today?...' Which would make it a bit strange, but hey, it was the blond who asked, not him.

'I got up.' he said, then sniffed up a bit as his nose got a bit warmer in the place, and thus, leaked 'Then they came and they told me to go out. So I went out. But… but I cleaned before I did.' he said, rising his hand to point out the very important thing. But then he frowned again and grimaced.

'No… that didn't happen today.' But when? He wasn't sure. Once he bought alcohol, he couldn't really tell when night started and the day ended. It was just a really long Friday for him.

Minato looked at the older man feeling even more confused at the answer he got, then a bit more disturbed when he started realizing what the other meant.

'How much did you drink?' from the way he asked, it was obvious he wasn't really looking for an answer, so much as the coffee pot – which he used to serve the man another healthy dose of the black liquid. He had to handle it to the guy, he might be still pretty drunk, but he didn't really act like it. 'Not today, Sabaku-san, I meant when you came to pick Gaara-kun and asked me for the boxes, remember? A week or so ago. Why did you ask for them if you weren't going to leave?'

'I was planning to leave, dammit!' said the man suddenly, slamming the almost full glass of coffee on the table, and thus, making half of the table and part of his suit prettily brown. Which he didn't seem to notice anyway. 'I was planning on going far, far away so he wouldn't find us, where nobody would find us and everyone would be safe but it didn't matter because he found us anyway!'

And then, oblivious to everyone's stares at them, the redhead's fighting pose slumped down and curled until he had laid his head on the table with a moan.

'I should have known!' he said and grasped himself on the head 'If we had only left sooner!... If it wasn't for that this stupid man!... But then!... And the money!... And then we would be gone, but now, we had breakfast and he came right in! He had bread and jam! It was o… orange! No, peaches! Why the hell did they have to eat his groceries? I had money!'

But then he stopped and looked up, counting on fingers.

'No.' he said finally 'I didn't have money. I had them later.'

'Jesus, be careful!' the blond immediately grabbed the man's hand by the wrist, prying the spilt cup off the fingers and grabbing a bunch of paper napkins to try and mop the worst of the mess away. Not because he had any actual hope of saving the suit, or that he cared much about it to begin with, but the coffee is still smoking hot and the amount he spilt on his hand had to hurt. Or at least he assumed, because the redhead kept ranting things that Minato planned to analyze as soon as he was done undoing the buttons on the cuffs of the man's shirt so he could get the soaked material away from the skin- and where was the waitress to clean this mess? What was this man made from? Didn't he feel the coffee? He couldn't be that sloshed- Minato could write a book about drunks and he had never been that coherent after a second or third bottle of anything, beer included.

The man let him remove his shirt for a moment or two, still droning on how he had money but not when he wanted, until he finally noticed what was going on and sharply took his hand back.

'Stop it!' he says, covering himself up now in wet and cold shirt 'I deserve it! I couldn't even protect my kids! You hear me? YOU HEAR ME, PEOPLE? I DESERVE IT!' And just to point that out, the redhead stood up, grabbing the attention of even more people, moving his hands around and looking like a politician, only to ungratefully land on his three letters and look back at the blond again. 'Did I tell you that he took the boxes I so carefully packed with himself? Like if it were his.'

'I'm sorry.' the blond said, not because he had anything to apologize or anything like that, just because he wanted to say something that would calm the redhead down enough before they got irremediably kicked out of the establishment. He should have bought coffee to go, but it's not like if he carried a thermos, and even if he had liked stars bucks, it's not like if they were any, or even any shops akin to it around.

'Please, calm down, I'm listening.' As usual, his voice was calm and composed, even lower than the usual volume as if he wanted to make up for the man's loudness as he futilely kept trying to clean the mess son the table with the paper napkins- he gave a look towards the bar, the current waitress girl gaping at them as if they were a soap opera, before becoming suddenly engrossed on some check she was writing. He debated going to the bar and dragging her, or at least an actual cloth to clean this, but decided against it. If she didn't want to clean it, he hoped she enjoyed scrubbing it off when it dried.

'Yes, of course.' said Daichi, like if Minato said something that agreed with his views, though it hardly made any sense (it did to him). 'You were listening and so was he when I told him that we were moving away. And he… he…'

He grimaced and caught himself by the side of his face, remembering how stinging the pain was. It echoed to him through the memory. He remembered very well his back, his tense arms, the way his face looked when unhappy – Yashamaru had such a scary range of emotions when he was not smiling. It was one of the reasons he felt threatened near him. You never knew what could jump at him from behind that façade. But he couldn't remember the sole hit, he couldn't remember what has happened after that too.

'He took Gaara and Kankuro.' he muttered, playing around the part of his wet part of the shirt, trying his best to remove a button from it 'When I woke up they weren't there… I should have let him play, you know. It was just a stupid game…'

The blond nodded, more out of encouragement for the other to go one rather than actually understanding what was going on, but with some luck, he'd get there eventually. So far, from what he understood, Sabaku had meant to leave, but before he could, his in law had come and forcefully taken the youngest pair. It wasn't much as far as feedback on the happenings went, but at least he was better off than the past week.

'Why didn't he take Temari?' feeling rather stupid for asking as that hardly was what mattered right now, but needed a lot more information to be able to make sense of this plotline, nightmare, soap opera this thing was turning into. 'Where is she now, Sabaku-san?'

Daichi closed his eyes and caught the cup with coffee, looking at it with glazed attention.

'With Yashamaru.' he muttered and started drinking the thing slowly but forcefully 'They said I'm not good enough to be a parent so she went with him. And she didn't want to go until the very end but I…' 'Let go of her' felt so wrong to say out loud. 'I made her.' And he continued on drinking.

The blond stared at the man at those words, frowning, but not really interrupting right away. Mostly because he wants to wait for the older man to have some more of that black tar that will hopefully clear his mind up some more. _'They said I'm not good enough to be a parent'_ Who were 'they'? Asuma? His neighbors? His boss? All those could be possible, but well thought, would any of them have enough push for the man to do it willingly?

'A social worker said that?'

'No.' said the redhead, frowning a bit. His head slowly cleared out, but it was a slow and painstaking process. 'My neighbor said that. He said I was too ignorant to take care of them… and my boss also said that, though it was not his thing to even say so. And Yashamaru said that…' he swallowed and looked up at the blond 'Who gave the court a right to decide who can take care of my kids? I was giving my all to them! Everything I could and they gave the rights to Yashamaru!'

Minato looked down at his untouched coffee, taking a careful sip simply to keep himself from having to look at the older man. The court. He hadn't known the hearing would be this soon, Sabaku had only mentioned it once when he'd first met his in-law, and never again since- he had kind of thought it would be next year, soonest, given how little about it he had heard at all. Sabaku had never seemed pressured, but then again, maybe he did stay to work so late because he was busy talking with his lawyer? And now 'mommy' had his kids. That could have been him three years ago. Would have been him if it hadn't been for Ibiki and Jiraiya and Sarutobi-sensei.

'Is it permanent? Aren't you going to fight it?' His lawyer had to have already prepared something, settled another hearing, at the very least. Daichi only kept starring dumbly at his coffee, without the sign that he heard anything that the man said to him. Only after someone passed by their table, the corners of his lips twitched in a twinge of a dark humor.

'My lawyer sucks my prosecutor's dick.' he muttered quietly. 'He didn't fight and said he was glad he didn't. I'd fire him if I paid him.'

Minato stiffened at the words of the older man. Obviously he thought the dick sucking was a metaphorical comment on regards of having lost the case, but the other part where he said he was glad about having lost? What sort of professional was the guy supposed to be?

'Then ask for a new lawyer! If yours is biased and he knows it, he should have asked for someone else himself, but as he didn't, you should have asked for a new one yourself.' Seriously? The redhead let a guy that was convinced he was unfit defend him? The man had only looked at him with the expression that could only say two things – that either his mind was virginal enough to act surprised at such idea or dumb enough to not understand what was said to him.

'Really?' he said, and the he slowly hanged his head down, looking even more defeated. 'Really.'

'Of course. How is going who doesn't even want to going to manage defend you fairly? It's-' he made a face at the man's lowered head, reaching for a moment as if to pat his hand, but quickly aborting the gesture to move the soaked napkins out of the way instead. 'It's not that big of a deal. You can appeal to court on regards of the last one, you just need a new layer, I…'

He balked off that sentence as I he had tripped on a stone, looking lost and unsure- yeah, he remembered how well did Sabaku take his offers of help. Off the top of his head, he couldn't remember a single one that had been welcome. But apparently he was dumber than a rock when it came to such things, because he said it all the same.

'I could help you find someone. If you want me to.'

'I don't have money.' said the man, grabbing himself by the head, as if the sole idea of the wallet gave him headache 'I can't pay, I can't do anything, I…' he closed his eyes, visibly in even more internal pain, as there was not a single thing that could hurt him here physically.

'I can't have them back now.' he muttered in a barely hearable voice, much to the contrary of his previous shouts 'I don't have money, I lost my job, I'm homeless- it would only hurt them to be with me now.'

At the words, the younger man slowly leaned back on the vinyl seat, eyes staring ahead blankly as he digested the redhead's words. He thought the other man had mentioned having left his department, but he had meant- at the moment. Like right now not being there. Not.. well- He was wrong… Sabaku had it a lot worse than he had back then.

'…your family? You could…' Surely they would help the redhead, no matter how bad they got along with him, this wasn't something you just ignored because you hadn't liked who you married. The man had had his kids taken by the king of creeps, they couldn't leave three little kids in the hands of a man, or whatever the guy thought himself to be.

Daichi rose his head at those words. His family? His family. He had thought about them only once, but not for one moment the idea seemed to be good for him – until now. Wordlessly, he closed his opened lips (because, what could he say at such awkward moment? He should have been the first to remember about this) and slowly rose his shaking hands to the clasp of his suit to get out his cell out of it. The forgotten number, the sacred third number to his home was still there. And gods, he hoped they hadn't changed the phone number. Though, knowing his grandparents, they were stable enough to keep on having one for their whole life.

'Excuse me.' he muttered as he got up from the table, putting the device near his ear. The phone beeped regularly, showing that if anything, the line was clear. His vision was still a little blurry, but he had now much better orientation than before, so he walked up to the counter on his own without bumping on the people that passed him by. The adrenaline slowly rose in his veins making him more and more sober. Pick up. Don't pick it up. But pick it up, damn it! No, please, don't. it's been such a long time. But I need you! But I don't want to need you. I can't. I have to. Please. Please, no. Grandma-

'Click- Hello?' And there. There it was. That old, known voice, that he could recognize anywhere, at any time. Even after so long. Even if it was even more croaky now.

'Hello? Who's there? Is that you, Michiko?...' croaked the phone while he stood, his lips frozen still and his lungs pumping the air like a running train. 'Speak up right now!'

That made him finally shrug off the covering shock.

'Gran- grandmother.' he said in a high, scared voice of a teenager he always was around that demanding tone 'It's me… Daichi.'

Silence on the other side of the phone. Between each heartbeats the man could have sworn the whole millennia had passed.

'Daichi?...' it muttered slowly on the other side, only to turn into 'What kind of stupid joke is that? Is that you again, Koota? I'll have your head for such stupid tricks, young man!'

'No- it's me, it's really me!' he shouted, a bit louder this time, getting few eyes of an additional audience, but as for now, he could barely care for them now 'It's Daichi… Daichi of Sabakus.'

'Daichi?' repeated the voice again, questioning him, but with much more believable note 'Where are you? You're alive?'

You're alive? Ouch. Now that stung.

'Yes, I'm- of course I am alive!' he said, a bit indignant at such words 'You didn't think I was dead, did you?'

'Of course we did! Do you know how much time had passed? And you ran away so long time ago!' said the woman, her voice standing out strong enough to not mistake it for anyone sick or weak. Which was good at some point to hear that she was not at bad condition 'And with that woman, of course!... It wasn't impossible she could had murdered you in your sleep!'

'Karura would never do something like that!' he said, raising his voice louder again. Oh, old good anger, where were you? He thought he had lost this impatience toward the old lady long time ago. As it seemed, he was wrong on that 'How can you even say it out loud!'

'Yes, of course…' an obvious lack of belief there 'So, how is she?'

Daichi breathed the air in to shout something bad at the woman, but then his mouth stopped, and all of his breath had gone out of him like from a broken balloon.

'She…' he said and maintained his breath on the calmer notice, feeling how the bitterness rose up to his throat 'She is dead.'

'Oh. Finally…' was muttered in the receiver very quietly, like if it was supposed to be said to someone else. But he heard it and his teeth grinded in anger. Oh for gods' sake!...

'So, when are you getting back home?'

'Grandma-!' he hissed in anger, wanting to tell her that he was not a hurt dog that got hit by a stone and now was getting back home with his tail between his legs, but he was interrupted anyway.

'Watch your mouth, young man!' said the woman rapidly, putting him out instantly. He closed his eyes and began massaging his forehead slowly. He felt the beginning of the headache.

'Grandmother.' he said finally, correcting himself 'That's not why I'm calling. It's about the kids.'

'Kids?' croaked into his ear almost asking 'What kids are you talking about, dammit?'

He sighed out, trying to control himself.

'Yes. It's about your grandsons and granddaughter.' he muttered. 'You know, those cute little things that I sent you photos of.'

'Yes, yes, those two that looked exactly like her.'

'Three.'

'Or three.' said the woman, obviously annoyed and impatient now 'What about them?'

'I have a problem.' he said and looked up, finally noticing that people were staring at him, so he turned sideways, hiding his face more into the corner and getting away from the looks 'Yashamaru- my brother-in-law had sued me in the court and he had taken them away… this is a long story, grandma-mother.'

'Yes?' said the woman, not sounding like someone who wanted or needed to hear it out. If anything it was even more dry now.

'I need… I need money.' he finally rasped, feeling more and more insecure. It didn't sound very good 'For the lawyer. To get them back.'

'You don't have the money for the lawyer?' said the voice with disbelief, completely ignoring the plea 'What kind of a Sabaku are you that you can't hire a lawyer? What kind of job are you doing?' 'I'm not doing anything- grandma, that's not what I was asking for!' he said forcefully, but with another interruption, he failed.

'Then you shouldn't be surprised that you don't have the money! Sell something then!' said the woman in criticizing tone 'You don't know even that? What kind of a Sabaku are you?'

'No!' he shouted out finally 'Grandma, listen! My wife's brother took away my kids! I need your financial help!'

'But those are her kids?' asked the voice, obviously outraged 'They are where they belong! Stop spitting nonsense, Daichi, and don't bring shame to your family anymore! Come back home and we will forget about everything!' Daichi looked up, breathing in and out, trying to calm himself down. Which wasn't easy. No, it wasn't easy at such situation at all.

'Grandmother.' he started once again, calmly, steadily 'I love my children-'

'Click-beeeeeep…' was the curt, quick and absolutely obvious answer. Daichi felt like everything around him froze, only to melt down slowly into the normal rush, with voices, with the clanks of the cutlery, with the lights…

Oh, you. You!...

'…you!' he muttered, grimacing out as the phone in his hand crunched suspiciously 'Then screw you too, you stupid, old wench!'

And then, the phone flied – flied miraculously, beautifully, with grace of a colorful bird – only to land in the puree with beans of some completely unsuspecting, and thus – surprised middle-aged man. But Daichi didn't stay long enough to see that as he marched quick enough from the local, forgetting he had left the blond behind, only to sit down in the snow three steps after getting out of the restaurant. He hated it. He hated his life. He wanted out. Now. And now he was getting sober. Wow. Great. Gods, why.

Minato could tell right away the idea hadn't even crossed the man's mind once, simply because of the expression on the other's face, but he was glad he decided to at least try. He also liked the fact that he moved away to try and get an ounce of privacy… not because he didn't want to eavesdrop (because Minato was human and as most of them, couldn't help but want to know secrets belonging to others even if he was willing to chew heads off to keep his own private), but because it spoke about the man sobering… and speaking of soberness.

He gestured towards the waiting girl and the mess of wet napkins and spilt coffee on the table. The young woman seemed to hesitate on the spot for a moment or two, but after risking a look towards the redhead and for all means silently counting the distance, quietly approached the table to clear up the mess.

Minato would have liked to dedicate some minutes to glaring at her into feeling guilty for her selective sense of work priorities, but the man's rising volume didn't let him, his head automatically moving to the tense shoulders. The redhead had curled away from everyone like a kid that had something embarrassing happen and wasn't willing to either admit or show it. He couldn't quite make out what he was talking about, but he heard him say 'Grandmother' at least half a dozen times, which made him wonder just how old the man really was. Because the woman would have to be at the very least forty years older.

The volume rose and lowered depending on what the man was talking about, whatever that might be, but even though he couldn't make out the specifics, it was easy to tell it wasn't going well at all. He was starting to regret having suggested it and actually stood up, walking to redhead- what he wanted to attempt to do would be hard to determine, considering he couldn't exactly step into a telephone conversation- only to nearly fall back on his as when the man suddenly stood up and hurled his cell phone across the room. Without even looking at him, he stalked out of the café, leaving the few people at the place gaping at them, and he had just enough presence of mind to be glad all they did was gape.

'Oh, gods, I'm so sorry.' the blond was instantly sputtering a torrent of apologies as he gingerly extracted the cell phone from the food and did his best to clean it with the near-by napkins. And he really was starting to dislike the paper items. If he had known how little use the man had for the cell phone he wouldn't have bothered, but as it didn't belong to him and to Minato, his cell phone was the only contact he had with people who needed to talk to him 24/7, he cleaned it as well as he could given the circumstances. He quickly took out some money to pay for the man's food and the coffee they had taken, leaving it at the counter, then ran out to find Sabaku. He hadn't taken too long inside the café, but still more than enough for the man to have gotten lost in the crowd if he tried, and he didn't want to think of the man alone on the streets right now. 'Homeless' and 'unemployed' and 'kidless' weren't very reassuring adjectives when one's mind stability were taken in account. In his haste he nearly ran past him, but the man's hair stood out like something very real and very alive in the partially snow-covered streets, so he quickly undid the path so he was next to him.

'Hey…' if he had been any other person, Minato would probably had shaken the man and asked him what his problem was, but as he wasn't, he did what he usually would do in such a circumstance. He reached for him, offering a hand. "Are you all right…? About the lawyer…'

The blond hesitated, leaning a bit closer so the man so he would see the hand and take it- he somehow doubted his pants were insulated, and the man was soaked enough from wrestling Asuma as it was.

'You can get one for free, you know? Even a really good one, they, ah… At least in Fire country. Even private ones do things for free because they need to answer to a certain number of free cases so they won't have to pay some sort of penalty or something.'

The redhead only now had looked up at him. As it came, his eyes were once again glazed over, and not from alcohol this time.

'Didn't you hear what I said?' he murmured, almost yowling 'I said: I have no home. I have no job. I have nothing! And you want me to think about the lawyer?'

Minato winced at the man's words, his own voice even lower, and he hoped that at least faintly reassuring.

'Well, then you need to get a new job and a new home.' he ignored the looks they were getting and carefully reached for the man's arm, giving him a small tug. 'When I was in college I used to make money preparing resumes. I can help you updates yours and find new places to hire you.' He didn't tell him in the best case scenario, it would take a month or two for people to actually contact him. And the man did need a stable house that he could give an address to when he filled it.

No money, no belongings… There was really only one way out of this, and Minato already knew his shrink would kill him for it. But really, what else was he supposed to do? 'You can stay at my house until you figure things out, _okej_? I'll help you.'

Daichi blinked, feeling if anything – plainly unhappy. Not because of what he heard, but because it all came to this – that he considered depending on others as something bearing the comfort. Like – warm food. Or space. Or… shower. He hadn't brushed his teeth for only two nights and he already had a problem with that. Right now, something so important like new job seemed a bit unreal in comparison to his natural physical needs, even if he knew that the man was right.

'Could I?...' he asked finally, looking a bit at the hand tugging at his shoulder. It was the closest he's got to the pat on his back from years. 'Stay at your place? Really, can I?'

'Of course.' the blond smiled, glad that at least he seemed to have found something to say that got as close to a positive reaction from the older man as he had in the past half hour. 'I don't mind, and I don't think Naru-'

_Do you really want this man at your house?_ his mind suddenly shot up, as usual, growing a pair a little too late to do him any good. You want this guy alone with your son? Like if he'd ever leave them alone! Minato was always at home. 24/7…unless he was out for grocery shopping (he took Naruto with himself, his conscience provided) as for university, there was Iruka- And leaving Iruka and Naruto alone with the man is so much better an idea?

And what? If you were with them you could stop him? He should have bought that tazer when he'd arrived to this stupid country. He gave another look at the man, trying to not be swayed by the wave of sympathy he got from the man's desperate expression and failing utterly.

'I don't think he'd mind either.' he finished, giving the man's arm another tug. No, Sabaku wouldn't do anything to them simply because if he wanted his kids back, he would need Minato's help. 'If you help me, I think we can get the last room habitable before night time- if you don't mind sharing room with the things that are already there- we can get them against the walls and stuff, but it's not like if I have anywhere else to put them-'

'That's all right.' said the man, for once one of the lines grazing his expression smoothing over. It were good news after all. He had no idea how would he get on with that little kid of the blond's as any thought of any kids just made him wince, but he decided not to think about it. Not now. At the tug, he slowly scrambled on his knees and got up from the ground. 'I'll give you a ride.' he said, searching for the keys in his pockets. His car was just full of his things, but if the man took the box on his knees and the kid would just squeeze between his clothes and the food, he wouldn't have to get back for it later.

'I just need to… my phone. I threw out my cell phone.' and without a second glance, the redhead immediately shot back to the restaurant in the search of his belongings.

'I need to go get Naru, don't worry about it- Hey!' Minato tried to grab the older man, but the redhead seemed to be a lot faster than what he gave him credit for because he only managed to catch up with him when the man stopped. 'I've got, I grubbed it- here.' He offered the older man his cell phone, feeling himself blush from embarrassment when just about everyone went right back to gaping once they were back inside.

'I- I need to go get Naruto.'

'Oh.' said the redhead, completely ignoring the public as he grabbed the phone 'Thanks.' He didn't think that the man would think about such things for him, It was… nice.

'I'll give you both a ride.' he said.

'_Okej_.' the blond nodded, already walking towards the door, only pausing long enough to make sure the redhead was following. 'Where is your car?'

He redhead looked up, seeing the gates of the kindergarten, then the people going in and out and… …that was a good question.

'Give me a moment.' he said and ran up to the kindergarten, trying to think from which direction he actually came. He remembered the familiar path so it had to be… 'I will be right back.' he said and he ran out to search for the automobile.

'Wait, no-' The redhead might still be a bit better, but he was in no condition to drive. What had he been thinking? He sped up to catch up with the other. 'Actually, we can leave it there today, right? Come with me and we'll get Naruto and you can pick it up later.'

Daichi blinked, but shrugged at that.

'All right…' he was not very happy about it, especially as he was now wet, cold and wet but hey. He was now at mercy, so he had to bow down a bit more.

'Thank you.' the blond said, sounding a lot more thankful and relieved than what he had originally intended to, but at least he had diverted the man's attention again to something more normal- oh… That's right. The redhead had just made a mess at the kinder, and now he was even messier by being soaked in both frozen water and coffee- seriously, what was this man made off? Minato didn't think he himself could shrug off being cold or having burnt off his hand so easily. 'I- could you wait here a moment? I'll just go get Naru and then we can go all back, just- please stay here? Please.'

Daichi had only made a funny grimace. Like if he wanted to see bunch of kids now. He'd have to be stupid or drunk to get in there.

'I'll wait.' he said and hid his hands in his pockets.

'Thank you.' The blond was a bit more successful on not looking too relieved this time, and after a quick jog to the kinder, he picked his precious little fox up. Literally, because Naruto pretty much tackled him as soon as he appeared by the doors.

'You are late, daddy!' the blond protested I something that was trying very hard to sound angry, and being only partially successful. 'You are never late, what were you doing?'

'I- sorry, _Lisku_, I thought-' he gave the bearded man a reproachful look. Hadn't he told his son he'd take an extra moment? He hadn't even been gone forty minutes. Apparently, it didn't occur to him the man had told him and Naruto simply hadn't believed it.

Asuma had only let out a breath of nicotine he started as Naruto was the last child in the kinder right now and he could get an outside break. Especially after what's happened lately.

'Please, have a safe trip home.' he said around the cigarette as he looked back to the place 'It's not safe outside lately.'

He wondered if to ask about the man, but he decided to not to. If he was to hear out everything that parents of his kids did he would soon become too attached to every one of them, and as he knew, every kid had to grow up and get out of this place sometime. Minato just nodded, picking the little blond up and adjusting him on his hip as he gave the older man a look- another thing he didn't like was people smoking around Naruto. But then again they *were* outside, so…

'I'm sorry about what just happened.' he said, again forgetting he had told the man not three days ago that whatever the redhead did wasn't his fault or responsibility and that he hadn't even been there when this started. 'Sabaku-san is just having... He's having a lot of troubles right now.'

He bit his lip lightly, before continuing.

'He'll be staying at my home for a couple days. 'So please warn the police if you see us missing for more than a day.'

Asuma blinked, obviously surprised by what was said to him. So, now they were… closer than before? And even if not long time ago the blond seemed to be sure that there were no links that could lead him to the man and his kids through his family now he was going to become the personal host of the man? That wasn't even funny. Some people could really be strange with what they did.

'That's a good thing for you to do… I think.' he said, unsure why he was telling that to him 'Say hello to his kids from me then…'

Minato was at loss of what to answer to that, so he just repeated that it was complicated without making a reference to exactly what was complicated, and that's pretty much where his luck ran out, because Naruto finally clicked off his internal shock and immediately pushed away from him to give him an incredulous look.

'Wh- _Dlaczego_?'

'_Lisku_…'

'_Po co_!' Minato sighed, pulling the boy close so he would hopefully stop being so loud as he quickly marched out of the kinder.

'He's just having a rough time, Naru, It will be just a couple days.'

'I don't want him to.'

'Naru.'

'I don't' want him to! He's mean and he scares you!'

'He doesn't scare me-' Which wasn't that big of a lie, really: he just terrified him every now and then. It wasn't a very stable thing.

'You are always feeling bad when he is around!'

'I'm not, I promise, _Lisku_.' Naruto just turning to give a look at the redhead as they slowly approached, before turning and firmly burying his face on his father's shoulder.

'Then… is Gaara coming too? And Kankuro and Temari?'

Oh, gods… not this.

'No, _Lisku_, I'm sorry. And please don't ask about it, _okej_?'

'But-'

'Please.' And his daddy sounded so stressed Naruto swallowed the urge to keep asking and just stayed where he was. He did stop and turn to give the man a look, eyes ranking over him from head to toe.

'You are all wet.' he stated with the start sincerity only found in preschoolers.

'Naru!' he turned to apologize at the man, but then realized than more than apologizing, he should be agreeing with his son. 'Well, maybe… Do you want to take a shower when we get home? You really should.' It wasn't horribly cold because the wind wasn't blowing, but it was snowing intermittently, and had been so since this morning. The man had only glanced at the kid, trying his best to ignore it. It really was a painful stab to look at something that other man had and he didn't because… because of all of that. He didn't want to be jealous or anything, only he was, because gods, this kid was so blond. And he hadn't noticed it earlier. He was almost as blond as Temari, only more. Suddenly, his arms felt very empty, even if he didn't carry his kids around every day.

'A shower would be nice.' he muttered and closed his suit instead, feeling how all of the water on the cover already froze and how his fingers were already numb from the cold. It made wonders to his burns but at the same time it was just more annoying his body temperature. 'If that's not the problem.'

'Not at all.' turning around, Minato made a small, needless gesture for the man to follow him. Being only four blocks away saved him of more than fifteen minutes awkward silence, and once in the department, he was even luckier to be able to rush the man into the bathroom, given than he had actually started to shiver and his lips were tinged blue. Probably meaning that the levels of alcohol in his blood were lowering by the minute.


	27. 27: Sofa

It wasn't until the man was in that Minato realized he didn't have any clothes with him other than what he had been wearing, and no matter how much did Minato trust his drier, it wouldn't be done by then. Even if it hadn't been stained with coffee. So he instead settled for finding something for the other to wear, settling for some casual (warm) clothes that he left in his own room, figuring it would be the best place for the other to change into. Then he went to prepare lunch, because now that there was a third person in the premises, he didn't think what he had prepared would be enough.

It was while he was trying to decide if 5 tablespoons worth of butter where horrifyingly cholesterolic or reasonable given the tomato/onion ratio and the lack of oil that the reality of what had happened started catching up with him. _Minato, I'm sorry to be the one telling you this, but you are being stupid._ his mind –ever so helpful far after the carnage- informed him _I know you mean well and I know you think you are doing this for the right reasons, but this is a BAD idea. You don't want this man here. You don't even know this man and you are letting him inside your house? Since when do we do this sort of thing? You can't even hold a conversation with this man! You are lucky if you can string three sentences in a row!_

It was that very moment the man decided to enter the kitchen and sit at his usual chair in his usual strict pose that indicated that he was very much a guest here and nothing more. The clothes the man gave him fit just right – which had to mean that they were oversized for the blond – and Daichi liked that, because they felt warm, clean and for once, cleaned in something else than his cheap washing powder he hadn't taken from the house because he simply forgot about it. He didn't know what else to do – after the long refreshing shower that made his body left warm and tingly after days of being left on a vague warmth of his own car, he could relax – but not as much to wander around and feel comfortable.

The idea he was going to stay at this home was completely foreign to him – he still felt like a stranger here and he didn't know what to do with it. After all, they weren't very close with each other. He stayed to stay calm as the man, completely ignoring him, stood over the small pot looking at his spoon like if it was a charming wand and observed the butter on it melt. He knew that smell – it was probably a simple sauce made from tomatoes and onions. He blinked, wondering if the man waited for the special moment, but as nothing moved, he cleared his throat lightly.

'Five.' he said under his breath 'Five tablespoons for one middle sized onion.'

Because, maybe he just forgot. The blond didn't quite catch what the other side, so he turned to give him an uneasy smile, relaxing ever so slightly when he saw that the shower had actually done quite a bit on regards of making the redhead look more human and less like something that had been chewed by life before being spit out.

'I'm sorry?' When had the man gotten into the room anyway...?

'I said five tablespoons.' said the man, feeling now even more uneasy now that the man's attention was on him 'Of butter. For one onion. That's how the recipe goes.'

'Oh? You know the recipe? Is it any good?' he turned again to what he was doing, sliding the half melted butter into the pan, and repeating the action a second and third. 'It sounds like too much butter.'

'Without it it's just too dry.' said the redhead, relaxing a little as the blond went on with his actions 'But it's rather extreme, usually I don't do such.'

Considering that butter ended up too quickly with four people, so such sauces were luxuriously wasting it. The blond stopped in the process of retrieving a fourth spoonful.

'So... is it better with just three? Four?'

'Three is enough.' said Daichi, looking at the pan in a thoughtful expression. But then, he noticed that it was not his pan and he looked elsewhere. 'But that's your cooking, do as you wish of course.'

'I've never tried it before.' Minato shrugged a little self consciously, going back to looking at the pan and poking at some of the tomatoes a bit curiously. 'So… you, ah… know… how to cook?'

Yes, that had been painful. But at least it had been done. If he couldn't talk normally with this man, he didn't think he was going to be able to manage the couple hours that would be just the two of them in a medium sized room rearranging furniture.

'Of course I do. I have- had to take care of three little kids.' Though he had to admit he was not as skilled at it as his wife and never really felt a need to do something like that, especially since he didn't have to do it earlier. It was poverty who made him interested in how low were the prices and what exactly could he do with what he could have afford. So it were never sophisticated meals, more like cheap artistic crafts of exchange like buying the whole head of cabbage that gave them meal for a week instead of buying half of the chicken for one meal – but he had to know what to do to make the food edible, because he just simply couldn't allow himself to throw anything out.

'The kids so far can only make themselves cereal without damaging anything – though to say it right, Gaara can do even that.' he smiled a bit at the memory of the little redhead putting so much milk it would spill over or just putting in enough of corn flakes so instead of a cereal it would turn into something very similar to oatmeal – and then his face clouded over. Yashamaru was surely making sure that they ate not only cereals but also nuts and raisins and honey and dried apples and…

'I hate cooking.' the blond said absently, turning back to cleaning what was left of the onion peel as he covered the pot with a lid. 'I had to work as a cook or waiter more times than I can count.'

Penniless students gave being penniless whole new meaning, and with their ever changing schedules, neither he nor Kushina had been able to do much better as far as jobs went. Now that she was gone, he found it useful because he wanted to be sure Naruto was taking the right things that would help him grow right instead all the instant and prepackaged crap he found parents gave their kids nowadays to replace actually caring for them.

'There's no shame in doing any work at all.' said Daichi, just as absently. -…and bananas and grapes and cinnamon and… oh, snap. He looked up. 'You worked as a cook?' Did that mean he could do more extravaganza meals than any normal cooking fathers could?

'I'm not ashamed, or anything, it's just- I just don't really like it.' Too many hours trapped in a cramped little kitchen with a billion people running back and forth- if Naruto thought he was stressed like this, it was because he hadn't seen Minato's bosses yelling at him about one order being ready and needing something else to be made. At the question he scrunched his nose slightly, turning to start filling the pot with water so he could boil the pasta. 'Mostly Thai and Chinese.'

Actually, learning how certain foods were made had been partially at fault for turning Minato into an almost-vegetarian. The leading factor had been when at one of his jobs he'd had to pick the crated overflowing with skinned dead rabbits and ducks.

'Other than that, I'm just good when I have the recipe handy.'

'We all are.' said Daichi once again absent minded. It was only half true, as some couldn't make anything even with such recipe as 'break the eggs, add salt, fry on pan with butter, eat'. But as the kid stayed healthy, he was sure he was getting what he needed to get, even if he hardly knew what Thai and Chinese contained.

'I guess…' aaand there went the conversation and died. Minato could almost picture it slowly sinking into the bottom, kind of like Leonardo di Caprio at the end of Titanic, including the cheesy mindsticking dramatic song. What a sad ending for such a lovely, uplifting conversation. And it had so much to live for. So much to give. Not for the first time, he wondered how he constantly had to fight to get scenes done that weren't just dialog-only when he could barely manage to speak normally with a human being for over five minutes. Maybe he could ask the man for any good recipes. Wouldn't that be wonderfully domestic? All he was missing was a frilly apron.

Maybe he could go the manly way and compare war wounds for the campaigns against sticky furnaces and spitting oil. That actually had seemed like a plausible alternative when he remembered the man had his own war wounds to tend for.

'How is your hand?"

The man had only glanced at the blond. There was only one answer he could give at such situation, and it was as well coded in the manly men's code. And it was: 'It's nothing.' Which around women could only get more into 'It doesn't matter at all.' Showing off that it didn't hurt and your eyes watered because the onion was being cut on the other side of the village or 'It doesn't matter, ouch' when you couldn't pretend any longer (and got it kissed better).

Technically, he was only starting to learn about how bad it was as before he was too drunk, too cold, too overwhelmed by stress to notice how bad it went. Now, that he was clean, after shower and calm, his nervous system had nothing interesting to do, so what it did? That's right – it hurt like a bitch. He wondered if he would be able to actually curl the fingers in the morning and if it really was the truth what they said in school – that the white skin is actually a dead meat that's not going to work anymore beside turning green and smelling like a grave. He hoped not. He needed that finger.

'You sure…?' Minato tried to have a look, but the sweater he had given the man actually did a pretty good job of covering most of the his hand, so save from a bit of unusual redness on the tip of the fingers, he didn't seem to be in particular pain or anything. 'You got a lot of coffee on it…'

Minato was generally more prone to breaking thing than cutting himself, and much more likely to accidentally cut himself than burn himself with anything, but it had happened every now and then, and he usually tried not to move the limb much and keep it away from heat sources because that was painful.

'Yes, I'm sure.' said Daichi, and as he saw the blonde starring at his hand, he slowly hid it under his second one hiding what was seen completely. Just in case. 'It's nothing. Look out, the tomatoes seem to be burning.'

'If you say so…' And he let it at it, turning around and back to busying himself with actually boiling the pasta, as the sauce was still just barely getting warmed up to the idea of simmering. It was a man thing, ad regardless of indulging much on it or not, Minato belonged to the right gender to understand and sympathize with the feeling. The only problem was when kids too young to understand about such codes were tossed into the equation. When they had gotten home, Naruto had pretty much kicked his backpack and jacket on the couch and ran to hide himself in his room. Minato found a bit disturbing the lack of question about where Gaara was supposed to be if his father was here, but he was a little too relieved by not having to face that particular topic just now.

He only came when he called him to get lunch, the perfect Fire country illegal immigrant who suddenly couldn't speak a single word of Wind country dialect- Tobirama has already explained to him that Naruto tended to revert to his home language to express dissatisfaction with a situation, just like he had when he had started kinder and everyone treated him like the newest over legged bug in the exhibition.

It was in theory a good manner to not-too-subtly tell others you didn't want to talk to them, and so far the only one who had circumvented it had been Gaara, who instead of not understanding a word, had started to simply sponge it off to the point that, while he couldn't yet speak them right, he understood a lot more of the dialect that seemed possible for such a small kid that had never heard it.

Tobirama had started explaining him it actually made a lot of sense, because kids still didn't have a very clear definition of what things were and how they were called, so instead of learning that a word that was said in a specific manner in one language and then that in another, it was called in another way, they simply learn that the object could be called by both names at the same time. It sounded like something stupid, but it actually meant a lot on regards of how the brain absorbed information- it had seemed interesting enough Minato had actually written some of it down because he wanted to work on something on regards of that sometime in the future.

At any rate, the older redhead definitely wasn't Gaara, because whenever Naruto made a show of saying something in his natal language, he just looked at him in this mild discomfort of people who hadn't understood a single letter of the sentence. He'd told the little blond to cut that and speak normally, but his son would only turn wide blue eyes in his direction, over exaggerating the innocent look until Minato wanted to shake him or laugh. He would probably have actually had time for settle for one or the other if Naruto hadn't stopped with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to his mouth and stared fixedly at what he initially thought to be the redhead's plate.

'What's that?' Naruto asked with that off balance between disgust and fascination that only small kids seemed to be able to properly depict. That, as Minato found out as soon as he followed the line of sight, was a very large blister barely peeking over the edge of the man's sleeve. The skin over it looked stretched and plastic-y, as if it belonged to a doll and the older blonde didn't want to think about the amount of water on that thing. And he'd been wondering when the older man had suddenly decided to become a leftie.

The redhead had slowly put down the spoon (and it was lucky of some sort, because if he was eating he'd probably cough on it) and covered the visible part of the burn with the sweater. And, just in case, he simply put the hand off the table, holding it on his knees. That kid. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of treatment he got when he acted so… so loud and unpredictable during the whole meal. He tried to ignore it and he succeeded at it a bit as the food he was eating was warm and delicious – something that covered nicely his empty insides – but such thing couldn't be ignored just that easily.

'Don't you know that staring is rude?' he muttered with a frown. His kids would never do something like that at such point of their lives. 'Don't concern yourself with this.'

"Don't concern…?' the blond repeated in disbelief, hesitating less than a fraction of a second before reaching for the man's hand and giving it a small tug. Under normal circumstances, he would have actually yanked, but after looking at that, he was afraid he might bump it against the table or scratch it with something.

'This is a serious burn, why didn't you tell me?'

Ignoring his father's stress for once, Naruto stepped on top of his chair and leaned closer in hopes of a better look.

'It's ALL-RIGHT.' said Daichi, wincing at the tug and immediately taking it away. He didn't want to become the centre of attention again, not now when he was already overusing this man's hospitality. It was already a quite nice average situation where he slowly started blending into the background, when the kid had to point it out for him. 'It's just a casual burn, I don't even feel it. And the soup is getting cold.'

He wanted to add something to get Naruto sit on his small bottom and away from trying to look at his hand like at something at the zoo, but he bit himself on the tongue. He couldn't. It was not his kid after all.

'It's spaghetti.' the little blond pointed out, of course remembering the right language now that it was the less fortunate moment for him to.

'It's not all right.' instead of grabbing the man by the hand again, he got up from his chair, looking down at the stubborn redhead. If he hadn't seen the bit of exposed skin, he would have probably cowered at the volume, but it had sounded more pained than irritated, so he was working on priorities alone. 'That looks quite serious- You shouldn't have it under the sweater like that, you'll only keep the skin overheat. Let me see.' And he extended his hand, as if he fully expected the other to willingly give it.

The man had looked away, grimacing at the way it was going. He was not going to back down like a stupid little lamb on such things. He looked back at the man, not knowing that he resembled very much of a little stubborn kid he once (ages ago) was.

'And what if I won't let you?'

The older blond blinked at him, looking confused.

'Well… why wouldn't you?'

The redhead blinked back, a bit taken aback by the answer himself. Actually, besides the psychological internal shame for getting into more troubles there was no logical explanation for this. And he was sure he was not going to explain the illogical reasons to him. So instead, he turned his gaze away and rose up his hand, resigned.

'Tell the kid to look away, I don't think he should see such things.'

'Naru-'

'Daaaddy~' the blond drawled in his most beseeching, pleading voice.

'Finish your food.'

Not that he really thought Naruto would mind seeing such things (sure, he might have nightmares about it later, but actually seeing it? His son wouldn't miss the chance), no he did it because that was the fastest way to get the redhead to comply, and he hadn't liked the way the older man had said that Naruto shouldn't see it. The answer was one incoherent, grumpy moan, but Minato didn't fight it, already pulling the redhead by the hand and gingerly peeling back the sleeve.

Daichi had tensed up, a little more every time the wool brushed past the blisters. Almost his whole palm and a bit past the wrist was covered with it, and even if they looked innocent and most likely like a big strange rash, every little one of them burned like hell. Beside that most of his skin on the hand was reddened and dry, also feeling pained, but not as much as concentrated dots with liquid. Small bits around his last finger were colored like wax and he couldn't feel them anymore – and he had no idea if that was actually better or not. Pain usually meant that something was healing up.

As careful as he was, Minato could tell that peeling the sleeve back was hurting the other man, but there wasn't much he could do about it. The material of the sleeves was loose enough, but the nice thing about liquids were that they tended to spread, and even if Minato had taken the work of removed the sleeve soaked in scalding coffee, the man had let it be apparently long enough. The blisters were on the upper part of the hand, mostly, but on the underside, the skin was just as red as the bits in between on top.

And the man has told him it was fine not twenty minutes ago.

'Yeah. _Okej._' The blond nodded to himself. 'We are going to the hospital. Naru, get your jacket.'

'Whaaat? Is he dying?'

Daichi had immediately took the hand away, hiding it behind his other hand. If anything, he looked like if the blond had just proposed swimming in the pool full of sharks.

'I said it's okay!' he said, gritting his teeth at the kid's comment. You would like that, huh. 'It will go away in a few days, let it go.'

'That's not okay. That's not even within sip code area of 'okay'.' Minato hovered between the man and going out of the room to get the stuff they needed. 'That needs cleaning and draining and…' a wince. 'Probably skin grafts.'

White. He pretty sure skin wasn't supposed to look like bits of mozzarella has decided to blend with it.

'Please, tell me you're joking.' said the redhead, looking terribly unhappy now. He didn't have money to pay for operations and had enough of walking around the places people wanted something from him. He just wanted to lay down and stop thinking. Too much had happened lately. He had gotten up from the chair to look after the man as he vanished from his view for a moment 'I'm not going anywhere!'

'You can let that go untreated, if the burn is bad enough the damage can be permanent!' Minato was already getting his jacket on, and for all appearances was trying to find where he had left his cell phone.

'It's just a small burn!' said the redhead, then looked down at the kid. Naruto, for being such a loud human, said terribly quiet now. 'Tell him it's nothing big.'

'It's not big.' the little blond said, uncharacteristically obediently, eyes drawn to the burn now that it was on plain display. 'It's huge.' It kind of looked like Mara's surface. Or Freddy Krueger's face if he had pimples. Or, or maybe like cheese that got a little too long on the pan. Or maybe-

'How could you said it was nothing?' Minato looked a lot more affected than the situation probably called for, considering it wasn't anything he had caused. He still couldn't help but feel bad that the man had gotten hurt while he was right next to him and he hadn't really done anything to help. 'That has to hurt like hell! I- you- it…'

'Can I say '_kurwa_' now?' The older blond stopped long enough to stare incredulously at his son.

'No!'

'But it's a good time now!'

'No it isn't!'

'But-'

'You can never say that word, understand? Ever.'

'Aw…'

Daichi had only frowned at that and covered his arm with the sweater again. Trust the kid, right.

'Every wound hurts, but I think you're exaggerating.' he muttered, but as the blond didn't seem to let it go, he finally decided to get along with him. Because the sooner they do it, the quicker it would end and seriously, he didn't want to make much more troubles than he already did, and- His frown deepened. 'What's 'coo-rvah'?'

Sounded a bit like 'curves'. Which wasn't anything special, but had nothing to do with the situation.

Both blond heads turned towards him, the older one blushing and looking uncomfortable while the miniature one also blushing, only choosing to burst into hysterical giggles instead, expression gleeful. 'D-don't- don't say that out loud.' the father finished lamely. On his part, hiss on seemed unable to stop giggling.

'Why not? Is it a curse?' said the man with deepening frown as his confusion grew. 'If it is, then kids shouldn't even think of using them.'

'But daddy-' Minato quickly threw the orange parka on his son's face, effectively silencing the next words.

'Yes, I know. Do you need help with that jacket?'

The redhead only looked away and immediately put the jacket on himself on his own – even if he did have bad way with the way his skin handled now.

'No.' he said, stopping the wince at his best. 'But you're wasting time. In the hospital they will tell you that.'

As they found out two hours later, the both of them were right. Or, well looked, neither of them were. It wasn't, by far, the disaster Minato had thought it to be when he took a look at the man's hand. It also wasn't something he should just brush off, because the worst of the burns had needed silver nitrate sprinkled on them, a special antibacterial cream smeared pretty much all the way to the man's forearm and carefully dressed, as well as advice not to leave his hand anywhere hot or in direct sunlight until the worst of the redness was gone.

All in all, the redhead would be looking to about two weeks worth of careful bumping against things, and specific instructions not to so much as brush against the blisters if it could be helped. He was also supposed to take the bandage off as soon as I was possible so the wound would get plenty of air to heal.

By the time the redhead was out, Minato had already paid for the visit and was down at the pharmacy, taking advantage of being at the right place at the right time and picking his usual prescription early. He had also picked an analgesic cram and some painkillers for his (for lack of better term) houseguest, and was reading the instructions on the latter when Naruto sharply tugged on his pants leg, pointing at the approaching redhead.

'Are you all right? How did it go?'

The man had made the blank face at such statement. Now, as his hand got treated, he felt better as it was not giving him a constant nonstopping bother in the form of pain. But still, only because it was dulled down, it couldn't compare to natural healing that as every good thing, had to take time.

'The doctor said I'm dying.' he said, then looked down at the little kid 'And I can't use this hand for the nearest two days. It's all right, just as I said. Can we go back now?'

At the first comment Naruto's jaw opened, but as he continued, he just glared at him and looked away, hands crossed over his little chest and cheeks comically poofed out. The older man just smiled, clearly back to calmness now that the damage had been confirmed as merely temporal.

'I'm glad it's nothing too serious.' the younger man said, nodding lightly. 'Just a moment, I'm waiting for some medicine.'

Daichi snickered quietly at the kid's reaction. It seemed he was easily intimidated and gullible when it came to the truth. It was kind of funny, made him want to tease the kid a little more – only he knew he wouldn't, as he could easily cross the line like that.

'What kind of medicine?' he asked, even if he wasn't really interested. Besides painkillers he was not going to be very interested about that.

'Ah…' There was a flicker oh hesitance, before the younger man smiled again, a little less certain than before. 'Just my prescription.'

'Mr. Uzumaki?'

'Yes.' grateful for the distraction, the blond turned around, quickly signing the receipt and getting back his credit card into his wallet. The man had seemed to understand that they were nothing serious, but it still made him feel a bit judged. Generally, he didn't care if people knew he was on a monthly prescription, but as the older man had already accused him of lacking in basic faculties because of it, it had turned into a somewhat uncomfortable topic. Daichi rose his eyebrow at that, but said nothing. It was not an easy topic so it was also not very safe one. Thus, he decided to ignore it and looked into the other side, very interested in… that vending machine. That was a very interesting vending machine. All blinking and stuff.

'Daddy?'

'Hm?' the blond asked absently, eyes still on the printed paper as he made a count for everything they had bought. His prescriptions, the topical cream, some gauze-

'Where are we gonna put him?'

The redhead turned slightly his head to the side to that. It was a direct question, so it wasn't meant for him, but… it was hard to pretend he wasn't interested. He cleared his throat to get his attention to himself. It should have worked just right.

'I can sleep on the floor.' he said, much likely hinting where would he like it to be. Not that he liked floor, but as for now, he couldn't really think about sleeping on bed, on sheets. His hand was all full of blisters, and if one would accidentally break through the night? Or if there was something to happen? Like puking or, or… not that he planned on that, but it was not a hotel and he couldn't pay.. And he didn't even feel comfortable enough for such things. He was not his own kids. 'Just anywhere is fine.'

That… was a pretty good question. In truth, the idea of the man actually living with them was still in a nebulous stage that was a bit too close to 'denial' to be pure casualty. He could accept the idea of the man taking a quick shower in his bathroom and wearing his clothes and eating lunch with them, but the idea of sleeping arrangements was only in the planning stage. Still, he turned to give the redhead a look between frustrated and amused.

'Don't be ridiculous, do you think I'd make you sleep in the floor?' Even if he had been in his less forgiving moments, Minato wasn't that sort of person. Originally, he had planned to have the man sleep on his bed. There shouldn't be much trouble considering that Minato was up until Naruto left for school, but he wasn't sure at exactly what hour would the man be waking up and the idea of sharing the bed… No. Just… no. He could crash on the couch, but the redhead would probably protest, and he couldn't exactly offer the couch to the redhead as Minato needed it work, that being the area he usually chose to work on what he was usually doing. That left the obvious answer.

'The… last room?' Naruto's answer was to turn towards the man and look at him from head to toe and back up, turning to give at his father a surprised look. '…is he gonna fit?'

That was a very good question.

#+#+#+#+#+#

The 'last' room (or more accurately described, the room in front of the laundry room) was where most of the things Minato hadn't known where to fit or hadn't even bothered with unpacking had ended in. It wasn't precisely a small room, but it was impossibly cluttered thanks to the numbers boxes and just about a million books lying around. It was also far from pristine, as given the rarity it got used, Minato barely bothered with sweeping the dust every odd month. All things considered, there was barely any space one could safely walk without hitting or tripping on something.

That without counting the discarded furniture that had been there when they arrived, because Jiraiya-sensei might have had an eye for women, but he certainly didn't have it for furniture, the armoire-thing being a hulking monstrosity that looked more like a normal closet that had been exposed to gamma rays and then decided to have a sex change gone horribly wrong instead of actual furniture.

The other surviving piece was a rather uninspiring coffee table that was a little too awful to look at to be in any place Minato would think of exposing potential guest to, and not nearly used enough to throw it away without feeling ungrateful and guilty. Nowadays it was kind of languishing in a corner, half buried under about two boxes worth of novels and the box labeled as 'Kushina', which had ended up pushed there after the redhead had gone ask for the boxes.

Among the perishing court of unforgivable furniture, the sofa reigned supreme, unchallenged. Minato stood staring at the irrefutable proof of his uncle's lack of taste.

'…you know, I'd actually managed to convince myself this wasn't as horrible as I remembered it.' he carefully folded the old sheet that had been keeping the thing clean, eyes blankly drawn to its yellow madness. 'I was wrong.'

Daichi had on the end of his tongue the words that he really started considering on sleeping on the floor now, as the vivid yellow had plainly scared him. But then, beggars, not choosers, it was at least some place to lay his bones and not die in the morning from the backache, so…

'It's not that bad.' he lied in shame but with good intentions 'It's fine for me.'

'It's horrible.' the blond said, shaking his head slightly. The pattern on the couch alone was nightmarish, looking like an autumn tree had decided to puke on garish mustard-yellow. He was sure that if one stared at the thing for long enough, an afterimage of it would appear whenever one closed his eyes. 'I don't know what worse, that someone designed it or that someone bought it.'

He didn't want to think about these things produced en masse. The only reason there were not any horror stories written with the couch as its protagonist was that Stephen King was still unaware of its existence. Daichi breathed in and out slowly, trying to not to sigh. Politeness demanded for him to stay and assure the man it was all right, but all he wanted to do now was to agree and march out of the creepy room. It all smelled of dust and some monsters that were still not hidden in the closets and he didn't like that. He was too old for Boogie Man, but he was old enough to know that not all monsters had heads or moved at all.

'It looks fine.' he muttered. The 'to me' part somehow got lost on the way.

The blond echoed the sigh, turning to leave the folded sheet over the coffee table.

'There is a book called 'The yellow king' that supposedly brings madness to whomever reds it.' he said conversationally, walking towards the blinders and opening the wooden ones before pulling at the windows. 'And I bet whoever wrote it owned this thing.'

It took several tries before the unused panel of glass managed to slide like it was supposed to, a gust of cold air entering and making the blonde shiver. It was cold, but it was also fresh air, which was very welcome, considering all they had ahead of them.

'Don't worry too much, when the bed gets made I'll get the thickest sheet I can find to cover it so you don't go blind from exposure.' he stopped, giving the odd piece of furniture a look. '...I can't promise anything about toxic radiation, though.'

'I like the couch.' the little blond piped from the door, leaning as far as his stretched arm holding onto the sill would allow him, given as he was expressively forbidden from entering the dirty room. His father shook his head, clearly appalled. Daichi looked at the door but he only rolled his eyes at the statement. It seemed that the kid had tendency for the colorblindness as he couldn't be talking about this hideous piece of furniture. But he didn't say anything as he slowly moved the boxes with one hand. He would do it with both, but he was aware of the fact the man saw him and knowing his level of concerning he showed already it wouldn't be gone just as quickly as anything else. So he decided to just do things the hard way.

'I don't know, I don't read books.' he said as he moved a pack with clothes to another pack. He didn't have time for such things. 'I would be grateful for the sheets though.'

'No?' the blond pushed at the window some more to make sure it was open as far as it would go 'What do you do, then?'

It seemed odd for him, not that the redhead didn't read, more like the absolute way he had said it. Maybe he didn't like to? But there were so many amazing things to read, the boxes they were pushing over the table being the best proof of it. He also was desperately searching from some neutral topic to talk about. With the man's work and the man's children being defiantly out of the question at lat for the following twelve hours, there wasn't much they could do.

'Work.' said the man plainly, not really thinking about the fact he didn't do that anymore. It was all he did for the past years, he barely had time for his kids, he didn't have time for himself and he couldn't really think of doing something above that, bah, the idea of having to plan to do something else was so imaginary for him he didn't want to acknowledge it. 'Counting numbers. Sleep.' He looked at the kid at the frame of the door and frowned at him. It didn't work. So he moved another box to the side.

'And what do you do?'

'Write. Translate from Wind to Fire dialect and back.' which was an actual lie. In theory, he could do it, but he had no actual translation title and he wasn't doing that, but he wasn't telling. 'Cook, read books.'

'He also trips a lot.' the little blond informed, apparently oblivious to the man's' desire for him to go away 'He fell last week and had a huuuge bump-'

'_Lisku_!' it came a little too loud, but he didn't want Naruto to finish that sentence, color flooding to his cheeks. Not so much for the man's' benefit but his own- he had no desire to remember the scene in the parking lot.

'But you did, daddy!'

'It wasn't that big- It was nothing.'

'Was too.'

'No, it wasn't.'

'Yes it was.'

'No.' Naruto pouted and stuck his tongue at his father.

Daichi had looked at that, then glanced back at the man. He was sure that he saw man tripping at least once. At the parking lot.

'Kid, respect your parent.' he muttered only at the sight of the tongue. He decided to play an idiot and not to dwell on the topic as it was awkward and not very nice for either of them.

'Res….pite?' the little blond scrunched his expression even more, eyes squinted again in a fox-like expression 'Breathe?'

'Respect.' his father replied, clearly amused. '_Szanować._' Naruto blinked at the pair, eyes wide, looking as if he had just been dry coleslaw as an appetizer.

'I love my daddy.' the little blond said innocently after a moment, which well looked was a surprisingly smart and appropriate way to dodge the subject, Minato just laughed, throwing him a tennis ball he had just found lurking in one of the unused boxes. It bounced off harmlessly on his head before rolling somewhere unseen down the aisle.

'Ow.' the blond pouted, rubbing at his head, but smiling back. 'Can I help?'

'No.' Knowing Naruto, he'd just make a bigger mess.

'But I wanna!'

'Get my laptop, then, I'll put some music.'

And the kid did just that. Daichi smiled lightly at the song, he had a twinge for Nirvana and their riffs, even if it wasn't exactly what he grew on as a kid. It was amazing that such a little brat knew such songs. Or that such a man made the kid listen to them. But then, writers (okay, translators) had their weird tastes all around the world. The evening passed nicely with them moving the boxes, one on another, which could be informative, if it only wasn't for the fact that the closer the night was, the worse he felt.

So in the end, he didn't know what he was cleaning off the dust and he was very, very grateful when the supper was offered to him afterwards. He could pop a painkiller then and just forget about the world for a moment. Who knew that a simple burn would make his temperature rise. He slowly started hating it's being.

They managed to finish in time, even if by the time the room was habitable it was pitch black outside and snow had started to fall in quite heavily. At least the room was habitable, finally dust free for maybe the first time in the year and with everything arranged as carefully as possible to save room. Most of the boxes were piled over the coffee table, where they took the least of the room, with a few other fit next to the fire extinguisher on top of the armoire.

The thing was as big as ever, with no chance of fitting the sofa next to it, but they had managed it squeeze two libraries next to it. It ate up most of the natural light in the room, but did wonders for space arrangements, as there was a sizeable free area that made the room seem a lot less cluttered than it originally was. Once again covered from innocent eyes, the yellow monstrosity wasn't as horrible as before. It was a bit clucky and a little too big still, but given the fact it was supposed to as it unfolded into a bed, that was probably an advantage for the redhead. It had already been made, with Minato sparing a few pillows and a heavy duvet for it.

After dinner, everyone had showers by turns and the redhead was finally allowed to take the bandage off, the skin looking definitely red and burn still, but at least the dryness was gone from it, even if it was unnaturally shiny and blistered still.

'You look tired, go and try to rest some.' Minato said as he handled the redhead the antiseptic cream and the painkillers with a small smile. 'I'll be on all night, so feel free to come talk to me if you need anything.'

He hoped that was encouraging enough. As much as everyone had taken pains to avoid the upsetting topics, he wouldn't be surprised if the man needed someone to hear him a bit now that he was more coherent and he had less things to worry about immediately. Then again, he looked tired enough to drop, so maybe he wouldn't.

'And you know where everything else is, so help yourself to coffee or anything you might need.'

'Yes, thank you.' said the redhead, taking the things from the blond. He was ready to crash down as he felt as the whole day just took a toll on him, but he didn't move back to the room yet 'I… thanks. That really means much to me.' he said, darting with his eyes somewhere to the corner in the room like if he was searching for something 'So… I'll be going. Goodnight.'

And with that he left, briefly brushing the kid's hair before he even thought what he was doing. It was a habit he developed with Kankuro, as the kid usually just followed Temari or Gaara without saying 'good night' himself as they told it for all of the three. So, Daichi tried to make him learn it, but the boy never really thought he was doing anything wrong, and as it wasn't anything big, the redhead usually let him go with just a brief stroke on the head. As time passed, the gesture slowly changed into a personal 'goodnight' itself. He blinked and looked down, a bit confused by himself.

'Sorry.' he muttered quickly and moved forward to the room, not looking back or even checking on Naruto's expression. It was better to not think about it. After a brief shower and random treating his hand with antiseptic, he was ready to lie down. The job he did was halfassed as every time he touched the wound it brought new pain and by the touch he could feel the difference of temperatures it had. He didn't like it. He was the only to have such a bad luck when it came to injuries. With a short adding of the new bandages and changing into pajama like pants, he closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep, without dreams. For the first three hours.

Then he started dreaming. And he really couldn't tell what it was, he knew it was uneasy and that he wasn't really in reality – he saw red, black, white and felt hot and handcuffed and he couldn't really move- He fell off the bed. 'What- where-' he muttered drowsily, looking around in panic. He couldn't recognize the place, he couldn't recognize the clothes, he couldn't recognize anything- Ah. Oh yeah. The bright color that peeked at him from under the sheets. It was not his own. It was Uzumakis. He was staying at the Uzumakis. Because he had no home, no job, no kids- Ouch. Ouch. Ouch!

His arm hurt like hell. Mostly because he hit the floor with it, but also because it as red, it was swelling, it was- he had the high temperature. And his throat- When was the last time he had something to drink? Could it be the last evening? Couldn't be. Slowly, untangling himself from the sheets, Daichi got up and peeked out of the room with the packet of painkillers he had in his hands. He could barely remember the way to the kitchen, but it was not very hard. He saw the light coming from the room partially closed behind the door, but he didn't check it out. Mostly, he tried to act the quietest he could, not wanting to hinder whatever the man was doing – and generally trying to not bring any attention to himself.

So he grabbed the first clean glass he found and drank the water from the faucet, washing down the pair of another medical drops. After waiting out for them to work for another twenty minutes when he jus sipped on the water and tried to not think about anything at all, he tiptoed to his room and fell asleep again. This time, he had a normal, vivid dream.

And it was brutal, brutally awful, because in this dream he was playing with his kids in his own big home he hadn't seen for years until his own wife who came out as her own brother just snapped her fingers and made the kids just melt onto the floor like cones of ice cubes, leaving him with a feeling of that the water sunk down so they had to be downstairs, his kids had to be downstairs… and when he started running off the elevation, he couldn't reach the lower ground, because the stairs had never ended.

It was another three hours (and a half) later when he woke up, feeling wetness on his cheeks and searching blindly with his hands for the body of Gaara with whom he slept for the most time since the youngest kid came into his life. And of course, he didn't find him. And somehow, it was shocking, because even when Yashamaru took him away, Temari gladly took his place, without a word of protest. And now, he had – nothing…

He rose up his hands, looking at them as if they had two new fingers attached to them or as if the skin on them suddenly turned blue and started smelling like bubblegum. Then he closed his eyes, tight, the tightest and hunched forward until he caught his forehead in his hands and tried to – not to think, to forget, to… This was – so hard to bear. That not thinking. That pretending that it didn't hurt, that playing he didn't care, that – being and not doing anything…

He breathed in and out (gods, please… if I'm dreaming, let me wake up) and he would probably sit like that for the rest of the night if it wasn't for his hand which gradually escalated in pain until he couldn't touch his own head with it anymore. It felt like if he put it on fire and the fire grew onto his skin, not wanting to let go anymore. Quietly, he swallowed another pair of painkillers and laid down, squeezing his eyes shut, counting up the numbers from the books he didn't have to work on anymore until the painful burn slowly got washed off and let him breathe normally. And then he relaxed and moved himself to the other side, to sleep. To forget.

Only to move to the other side after seven minutes. And once again to the first after four minutes – and on his back after three long minutes. Then, he finally opened his eyes. He couldn't sleep. When he had such a dream, he couldn't sleep. It felt strange to lie in bed and not to look out for a body to crush by his own, to not hear quiet 'daddy' poking at him from time to time, not feel the blonde hair or hear the light snore of his middle child… (I wonder if they have a peaceful sleep) (you will have peace in your grave) (no, no, no, not that peaceful!)

He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep, but his attempts were futile. Finally, he decided to get up and get another glass of water. And somehow, when he got it, he stayed in the kitchen. For ten minutes. Twenty. And then, half an hour. Only when the first sun rays hit his shoulders from the partially curtained window, he decided to get up. He couldn't sleep, but maybe now, that he tired his body out like that, maybe now… (even if his feet felt terribly cold now from sitting like that, even if he still remembered that dream like if he had just woken up)

He stopped on his way, seeing as the door to one darkened room were partially opened. He wasn't sure exactly why – was it surprise, curiousness or maybe just simple habit of looking at his sleeping kids when he was at home when he was getting up at night – but he peeked inside the Naruto's room. The boy was sleeping peacefully, covered in sheets, a bit tangled but calm. And for a moment it also reminded him of that his own kids were so, so far away and he couldn't do anything and that he was alone, gods, he was so alone-

He left, before his urge to hold onto the kid as the substitute grew unbearable, he left to his room and closed the door behind himself and only then he started rummaging through one of the boxes that he moves earlier, searching blindly, mindlessly, just because he had to, he had to have this- There- He found it- So he went to bed- Covered himself with the given sheets- And fell asleep with an old ragged figure of a plushie dog that had to belong to the little kid. It felt somewhat familiar. At least he could substitute the silly toy with this. At least he could pretend it was a teddy. It was silly, but he didn't think of it. He simply slept, painless and dreamless until the next day.

#+#+#+#+#+#

Minato watched the man go away with a small smile, mostly born from relief. So far, so good, and he had even almost like what he had done to Naruto, even if the ruffle had caused his son to freeze, staring after the man, and then to compulsively rub his own hair until the hair was so messed that whatever sort of ghost from the touch (and subsequent infection) had to be gone.

It really could have gone a lot worse, even if now the redhead was living with them (still a comfortably unrealistic concept, as far as his psyche was concerned), there was no saying how long he would be staying, and the man had ended up with horrible burns from coffee, from all things in this wide Earth (which made Minato wonder how someone as disastrously inept as he usually was could have avoided getting hurt to that degree so far). He'd have to deal with it a day at the time, but at least not this particular day, because he also felt pretty tired, even if Naruto looked as wide awake as ever.

At that point, he had started to feel pretty guilty about having invited the man in without really asking for his son's opinion, but he also found too strange Naruto wouldn't so much as ask him anything, so he settled for also ignoring the elephant in the room and making it up to his son letting him stay up some extra forty-five minutes playing some old Sega genesis games with him and promised to think very hard about buying him a PSP2, not that he liked the idea, as two decade old games were in majority vastly less violent, but he guessed he could at least start thinking about it. And maybe when a new console came out two or three years from now he'd actually buy it- maybe.

As to what happened after putting Naruto to bed, he wasn't very sure. He started working, but didn't really manage to concentrate and instead turned to proofreading what he had written so far again, adding some changes and fixing a tricky scene concerning what he wanted the character's teacher attitude towards the enemy be, the first draft seeming a little too tepid, mood-wise, even if he was supposed to be a 'cool' sort of character.

At one point he decided to go take a shower as he hadn't really gotten the accumulated dust off his person. Once out, he saw last room's door was open and there was light in the kitchen, so the redhead was up. Thinking the man might have wanted to talk with him, he had hurried to his room to put some clothes on, but by the time he was ready, the lights were off and the room was closed, so he went to check on Naruto. The blonde was a little ball of covers that he carefully tugged off so he wouldn't strangle himself with it in his sleep and pushed him a little more to the center of the bed, knowing Naruto was perfectly capable of tumbling on the floor and sleep through it.

He idled for a little while preparing himself some tea with milk (nowhere as good as chai variation, but he was just going to have to wait to find the proper recipe for it and get the spices) and drank it while browsing a bit on the internet. As he had nothing better to do, he started checking online about formats for resumes- not because things had changed that much in the past six or eight years, more like to be sure he was doing it right, and saved the links that seemed more appropriate for it.

He wasn't sure if the redhead would be in the mood to talk about his job in the morning, but at least he would have some stuff ready for it, though he felt the most pressing subject was calling his kids and letting them know he would be staying with them. Come think about it, hadn't the redhead set a date to meet this kids? It was odd, he didn't think he had mentioned it, but then again, after the scene at the diner, he hadn't wanted to bring up the topic again. There was also the matter of the things the older man has left in his car, which they would have to pick up at some moment or other.

He wasn't going to bring the topic up unless Sabaku did, though, he didn't want the man trying to drive with his hands in that state. Around five in the morning he decided it was a good time to call Anko and see if she had gotten him the information on the weapons he was needing, but somehow it degenerated in her telling her how her uncle was torturing their newest addition to the editorial and how she had broken her last boyfriend (Anko's boyfriends seemed to a survival expectancy that more or less matched the one of Minato's coffee mugs). In turn, he told her he was back in therapy and that Naruto was adapting well to the new language, while carefully avoiding mentioning anything about the redhead, knowing that anything he told, Ibiki would hear sooner or later.

His back ached from the unusual load of physical work, so he had gone laid down while he talked with the younger woman, and that's how he missed the redhead coming out to swallow painkillers the second time. It was past seven in the morning when the blonde decided to get up and make some breakfast for his little fox. He set some milk on the stove, looked around in the fridge to see what he had and decided to that one high calorie breakfast wouldn't kill Naruto- if anything, given the low temperature, it was probably needed.

'You sure you want to go to kinder, _Lisku_?'

The little blond, who was still wearing his pajama top with the pants he would wear that day just sleepily munched on his toast and eggs, pausing to slurp on the yolk nosily before nodding.

'Naruto, manners!'

'Mfffph.' Any more force and he would probably have spat the crumbs all over the table, but he did ingest his second one without a zoo-like cacophony for accompaniment. he had to admit that was probably courtesy of Iruka's bellows of war than his own attempts to teach his son manners, because Naruto rarely listened to him for more than five minutes in such circumstances.

The nice early morning quietness continued for as long as Minato helped his son into the rest of his clothes, suit him up for the snow outside and left the department. Then Naruto decided it had been enough quietness for one go.

'Where is Gaara?' Minato stilled, looking up at the stairs as if he expected the redhead to come down bellowing and brandishing a war hammer over his head like some Viking. When none of that happened, he just took Naruto's hand and tugged him quickly away. 'Daddy.'

'I know, I know…'

'Where is Gaara, daddy? Where is everyone, if that man is here-'

'_Lisku_-'

'Tell me!'

Minato stared at his son, his expression clearly unsettled. He wasn't panicking yet- he didn't feel stressed enough for that, but he was far from calm.

'It's… it's complicated, Naru.'

'You said that already yesterday.' Bright blue eyes held his own accusingly for a few seconds, then moved down. He thought he would say something else, but there was just this accusing silence that made him feel tight and a little breathless. He wanted to drag Naruto to kinder and leave him there until he forgot about the topic. That's the only thing he wanted at that moment, and it made him feel so guilty he physically felt ill.

'It's… he's having problems with his family. And he lost his house and his job-' That made the boy look up, expression worried again.

'What? Where is everyone staying?'

'With their uncle-'

'What uncle?'

'The, ah- the man- the man that came-'

'The girly man?' if he had been any less nervous, Minato would have been amazed at his son's ability to understand him when he himself wasn't sure what he was saying? 'The brother of his mommy?'

At his father's nod Naruto repeated the gesture, chewing on his lower lip lightly.

'…is he okay there?' I don't know, was what the blonde wanted to say, but even he knew that was the wrong thing to say.

'I'm sure he is.' he gave the small hand a gentle tug, repressing the urge to sigh in relief when Naruto followed without protest, stepping carefully on the piles of snow that remained on patches of the street. They were just a few dozen meters away when Naruto spoke up again.

'Then why hasn't he called me?' he asked, looking up at his father with such a hurt expression Minato suddenly wished he had sent him to that private kinder instead of this particular one 'Doesn't he like me anymore?'

'Oh, no, no _Lisku_.' he stopped, crouching down to give the little boy a hug, then nuzzling his forehead against the warm mass of yellow and gold peeking from the orange parka. 'Of course he likes you, you are his best friend.'

'But he didn't call me once!' the blond said, eyes teary but oddly enough, none of the excess of water actually spilling. 'In two weeks! Doesn't he miss me?'

Minato bit his lip in much the same manner the younger boy had just a few minutes ago, one hand rubbing comfortingly at his arm. Naruto didn't lean into the touch or push it away, just looked down at the floor, eyes over bright and nose pink in the cold.

'…I'm sure he will call sooner or later, Naru.' he said after a few moments, managing to smile as encouragingly as possible given the circumstances.

'Yeah, okay.' he couldn't have sounded more unconvinced, but his father had meant it. If Minato had to gut out baby lambs in the name of unpronounceable God to get the little redhead to call his son, he would do it. Anything to wipe the miserable expression from his face. It wasn't until they finally reached the 'Three hazelnuts' that the little blonde refused to let go of his hand. Minato was about to ask him if he was sure that he didn't want to stay at home for the day, but Naruto just looked up at him expectantly.

'You sure he didn't forget?' This time the blond did the right thing and leaned down, picking up his son and giving him a squeeze.

'Who could forget about you, Naru?' But he had a point. Sure, one could assume Gaara simply didn't know their phone number, but 'mommy' could easily have asked the redhead's father for it. When was the last time the man had spoken to his kids?

Those were the things rolling over his head when he got back home, and he actually went to the last room, very carefully opening the door to have a look. It was very dark inside, but the thin stream of light from the hallway was just enough to make the shape of the older man under the blankets. Minato didn't want to wake him up (more accurately, he didn't dare to), so he closed the door back and decided to go to bed. His back still ached and he was developing a headache from all of this, so sense dictated he tried to sleep it off before it became too bad. Leaving a note for the redhead to help himself to cook himself whatever he wanted- and hinting that he would probably want ham and eggs- he stripped off his clothes and went to bed.

It was a late noon when the man finally got up from his bed. The state in which he could be described was: an old man looking even older than he really was with hand painfully blistered came out of the room barely conscious dragging a plushie toy behind him after another sleepless night (though physically, the last one was a lie). Even if it was one of the longest night in his late life he couldn't tell he slept well. His hand kept him in a state that was only a bit more hazy than a normal awakened state at most of his dreaming, he couldn't now move his fingers, he was thirsty like hell and besides that, he didn't want to do anything else at all.

He walked – or rather – crawled on two legs out of his room like a prisoner after a long lock on and did three things: first, he walked to a clock and go a bit taken aback that it was already this hour; second, he walked to the window to be a bit less surprised it was snowing, a bit grayish and a bit sunny outside; and third, he walked to the table where the food lied. His stomach felt empty, but he felt no hunger. His rational part of the brain told him to munch on the food he was not able to eat for so long (and gods darn, there was ham, HAM), but even if he tried to munch on it, it tasted like piece of wood. So instead, he took another cup of water and drank it slowly, washing down another painkiller with it and took the bit piece of ham with himself, chewing on it more like at the bubble gum than at the real food. Only then he noticed that he had his hand occupied with a dirty orange dog, but he didn't really mind it. So, instead of worrying himself over it, he took the water, the ham and the toy in two turns and then he laid down on the bed again, still trying to eat the piece of meat. After he finally succeeded on that, he simply lied there, hidden under the covers and gazing emptily at the darkened boxes and things in them. The toy felt ragged, smelled rather bad and he disliked the lack of warmth of it, but he couldn't really let go of it. He could use a drink now. Or two.

Minato had fallen like the dead and slept the next five hours away, waking up feeling as if it had only been one. He wasn't very glad to say that sleeping badly was becoming an habit, but he didn't think he would be able to go on another week like this. If by next Tuesday he was still feeling like this, he was going to ask Tobirama to give him something to be able to sleep more easily, even if was homeopathic or a placebo- preferably, he'd go with more valium, but given the low chances of being that lucky, he would do with anything that worked even remotely. He practically had to roll off bed to get himself up, and once up he friend outside, the snow falling making him even less inclined to go out- but he did have one little fox to pick up, so it's not like if he had much of an option

He got dressed a stripped pullover, knowing if that Kushina had been there she would have mocked him for his love for such pattern, but given as she wasn't he just shrugged it on, instantly feeling a bit better and a lot warmer and more comfortable. Yep, he definitely was a prime subject for placebo effect.

A quick exploration through the house showed the man's room had the door barley ajar, but he decided to do with a quick cup of coffee before trying to be sociable. He only thought of checking if the man had eaten or not after downing a full cup, but given that the pan was in the exact same place he had left it after cooking Naruto breakfast, it was a safe conclusion the man hadn't. There didn't seem to be much change in the amount of contents on the fridge either, with the possible exception of the water. He quickly replaced the bottle with a new one and ran some water on his cup and the pan to get a bit of stubborn cheese out, leaving it to soak.

Then taking a deep, steering breath, he dared to go to the man's door, pausing long enough to pick his glasses on the way. Not because he was having a bad eyesight day or to ease a headache, he simply felt like having them on at the moment. Carefully, he pushed at the door, peeking in to see if the man was still in there. He could dimly see the shape of his body on the sofa, not curled like last night, but sort of flat on his back. With the poor light, he couldn't tell if he was awake or not.

'Good morning.' he called, softly enough he hoped not to wake the man in case he was still asleep.

The redhead stirred lightly. He had noticed the man coming in and even if he didn't hear the footsteps, the shadow clearly blocked the light from the outside. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to care much.

'Morning.' he muttered, more because he had to say something, and not because he wanted to. He slowly moved his head to the entrance. In this dim light, the man on the path of it looked like some kind of saint or a godly being. He looked for a moment or two, and then moved back to the previous position. 'I'm still sleeping.' Because 'go away' sounded far too rude in this home, at such circumstances. The younger man nodded lightly, his tone still just as quiet.

'How is your hand?'

'It's good.' At such point, the pain numbed down to the low pulsing. It felt kind of hot and hurt kind of a bit when he tried to move. That's why he lied still for the last hour or so. With that out of the way, Minato was at loss at what he was supposed to say. Which was a lie, he knew perfectly well what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to gently but firmly tell the man to get up, question him about the million things that needed to be questioned, and he needed to do this before Naruto got home. He just didn't want to do any of them.

'…I'm going to go pick Naru up.' he said instead, shifting by the door a little. It was so odd to have the man here, so off to see this room looking like an actual room someone might live in instead of their combined mess. 'Would you like to come?' There, lukewarm at best, but still there.

'No, I'm still kind of sleepy.' answered the man dully, not even looking back at the blond. To go out? For a kid? No, he didn't want that. Anything but that.

'All right.' what else was he supposed to answer to that? 'Call me to my cell if you need anything, but it shouldn't take too long.' He hesitated at the door another moment, his palm sweaty against the fake brass of the door's handle. 'I'll wake you up for lunch.'

'Thank you.' And really, Daichi could have answered as well with 'I love you' and 'go fuck yourself' and it all would mean the same at the same time, which meant nothing. Lunch? He couldn't tell if he really was interested. He was a bit hungry, but mostly he wanted just to be left alone, just like that/ He could pretend he wasn't really there, which was so, so (strange) and yet, good.

Naruto was in better spirits when Minato came to pick him up, and by that he meant he not only didn't touch the subject of Gaara again, but actually chattered about how stupid some 'Sasuke' kid was (Minato had the feeling it was the dark-haired kid his son kept sticking his tongue to until they had to cross the street) and trying to convince his father to let them keep the school's pet rabbit for the weekend.

Given Minato's conviction all white rabbits were the spawn from hell, it was a battle lost before it even started, but no one could say that the little blonde gave up easily. Once home, the little blonde helped him with the food- which meant he insisted to add more beef to the broth and stroked some of the vegetables under the water before his father washed them more thoroughly and set to cutting them, leaving the blonde to slowly wonder down the aisle, as noiselessly as a four-year-old could be, which really wasn't much.

Once by the door, he slowly peeked inside, just like his father had, but where the older blond had just stayed there, he pushed the door further ajar, watching it in the whitish light coming from the cloudy day and stepped in, stopping next to the man's makeshift bed, reaching for one of the corners of the bedding and lifting it slightly as if wanting to make sure the horrid yellow from the couch was still below.

Daichi didn't move at that, even if he felt that something that wasn't him or his hand moved the bed sheets from him. Normally he would be more than alerted, but now, after getting into another half-dreamy state, he barely could care. So he had only turned to the side where the sheets were lifted as he covered his face with his arm and opened slightly his eyelids, looking at…

…something small- The kid. Gods, he missed his kids.

'What do you want?' he asked. And that sounded more like' whazzuyoo want.'

Naruto let go of the blanket sheet, letting it fall back in place, but actually attacking it under the border being a little beyond his abilities, not that he actually thought of it.

'Cześć.' The little blond chirped after a few seconds of careful assessing of the redhead, hands laced behind his back while he rocked lightly on the balls of his feet 'Jak się masz?'

The redhead had only blinked at the blond, not understanding a word from what was said.

'Che-' he started, trying to repeat the word, but it sounded too foreign, too difficult. He couldn't get how people could use such unrecognizable words. He frowned. 'What do you want?...' he repeated once again, more clearly this time. He looked a bit like if he wanted something but was too shy to ask about it 'I'm not going to play with you.'

The little blond gave him a pouty frown, eyes closing into a foxy squint as he reached and ruffled his own hair in frustration. He wanted to see how the man's hand was doing after yesterday, neither of the adults wanting to let him see anything beyond the blotchy redness and some big fat blisters. He wanted to see what it was like now that the doctor had cleaned it- had he burst the blisters? Where they all squiggly and saggy against the skin? Was it all red like before?

Like any kid, Naruto had a natural fascination with wounds, and the man's was no exception. His father rarely went a week without acquiring some impressive bruises, but so far there had been no buns to speak for, and he wanted a look before they were gone. The curiosity, however, wasn't enough to push him into the man's dialect.

'…obiad na stole.' he said instead, giving the bandaged hand another look before quickly trotting out.

The man looked after him for a long painstaking moment. What could he want? Most likely he was trying to peek at his hand, but why would the kid want to see something as awful, he couldn't understand. If anything, his own kids strayed from anything too vile and he had little too no experience with other children. He sniffed lightly, wondering if it could have to do anything with the lunch or even if it was that time of the day. Then he swallowed a dry cough under his breath and covered himself completely with a blanket, trying to hide himself away from any source of the light. He really did not feel like getting up. And since he still felt no hunger, it was probably still too early for the lunch.

Naruto came back to the table and sat down on the chair, slumped on his arms and his short legs kicking back and forth idly. In the meantime, his father turned the fire off, dropping a handful of soy sprouts to let them soften a bit with the accumulated heat, then placing the lid back.

'Did you wash your hands?' he asked, washing bits of soy sprouts from his hand then rinsing them. Naruto shrugged a little, before sighing theatrically and walking to the bathroom. It took about as long as the little blonde took before the table was set, His father remembering at the last minute he had to add an extra set of plates, not that his guest seemed to appreciate the effort. '...Naru, did you tell him lunch was ready?'

The boy's answer was an energetic nod and a drawn out 'Taaaak~' that made his father silently raise an eyebrow. Given how little effect it had on the kid, he shrugged and went to look for the redhead himself.

'Sabaku-san?'

Daichi had only frowned under the blanket, but didn't do a thing. Why it had to be so noisy now?...Minato waited a few moments, leaning on the doorframe a bit.

'Lunch' ready, Sabaku-san.'

The redhead frowned even more, but it seemed it was not a moment to act quiet now. With a quiet sigh he uncovered himself, wondering when the air outside became so fresh and looked up drowsily at the man.

'Already?...' he muttered, then laid down again with a heavy 'thud' that was muffled by a pillow 'I'm sorry, I'm not hungry.'

Minato hesitated by the door for a moment longer than most would have, then slowly stepped into the twilight, his shadow cutting most of the light source from the open door.

'Look... I know how you feel- really, I do.' Those weeks under psychiatric scrutinizing were never going to leave him, constantly thinking of the possibility of losing his son to that woman, of thinking of he doing anything to Naruto, of what he himself had caused with his selfishness. '- but staying in bed won't help. I know it feels better than going out and- and living in all of this, but if you stay there too long, it will only get harder.'

Was he making sense with this? He hoped he did. Daichi had only opened both of his eyes, gazing blindly in front of himself as he slowly let the words drown around his head, their meaning mocking to him.

'What are you talking about?...' he murmured quietly, then looked up 'I'm just not hungry now. I'll come later.'

Minato looked back, again noticing how dark the man's eyes were, looking even stranger in the dim light source- it just looked like if he had huge pupils, which was a lot less creepy than what it sounded like, just... Intense. Attention-grabbing. After a few seconds he nodded, taking a few steps back. He paused by the door again, obviously meaning to add something, but in the end he just backed away.

'All right then... we'll wait for you.'

Daichi observed him, until the door had once again got tweaked closed and he curled up in his position. Maybe the man was right – now he didn't even feel a motivation to get up and swallow a painkiller when his hand once again started killing his senses. But the idea of getting up and just moving out from here filled him with dread. He felt abandoned and needless, like an old shoe nobody wanted to wear anymore. And here, he blended into the surrounding perfectly. He coughed under his breath again, feeling a painful twinge in the chest now, his snowing adventure not so brief as he thought. But now he didn't have to try to be healthy for the sake of anyone else anymore.


	28. 28: Cartridges

It was only evening when natural need to pee made Daichi get up from the bed. He walked out of the room feeling even weaker than in the morning and as it felt cold, he also took a blanket with himself as a cover. He lied in this for the whole day, so it didn't matter if he touched it anymore. On his way back he looked into the kitchen, but once again stayed with the glass of water in which something reddish reflected. Only a moment after he saw it was not blood or anything just as vile, but a mirror image of his own beard. There went days without shaving and he managed to get a nice field of hair there. He could shave. Tomorrow.

He proceeded on slowly swallowing the water, stopping only to cover up the cough that stopped him in the midway and blinked, looking back into the depth of the house. It seemed that the man was once again sitting with his computer – this light could be shown only by screen after all. He looked at it, for a moment wondering if not to wash his teeth, as the taste inside his mouth was hideous. But then, he just proceeded in drinking.

Minato looked back at him, surprised but his body didn't react along with his sense and instead of jumping back he had only widened his eyes a bit. They were bloodshot now and under his eyes bagges formed as he slept too much. Then he had looked back onto his hand, and only then reacted with a nervous moving the blanket around his shoulders.

'You want to use bathroom?' Daichi muttered, a bit flustered and then drank the rest from the cup in fast gulps. There, he was done 'You can use it now, here.'

'No, not at all.' the younger man stammered, taking a step back to let the man pass 'I… I just put some food back to heat. You should have something to eat, and-' a vague gesture with his hand towards the redhead's 'Have those bandages changed. If you think you won't hurt yourself, you should probably just leave them off altogether so it heals faster. I think some of the blisters broke while you slept.'

Understatement of the century, if the faint splashed of pale yellow were any clue. Removing them from the dried gauze would hurt, but they would need to dry off so they could scab over. Minato couldn't help wondering what the hell the man had been doing with that hand while he slept to get it to this state. The man looked down at his hand and grimaced at the sight. Yes, he was probably better off without the bandages, especially as the crystal white changed into a rather dirty yellowish into most of the parts. Carefully, he started undoing it, but then he changed his mind, grabbed the cup and walked out of the bathroom. He could do it anywhere else too. Bathroom was not a good place to play like that.

'Okay.' he muttered, passing the man signaling that he would eat something, but he did it only because of politeness. He was still not hungry and if anything he wanted just to forget about the idea of the food. He looked at the room, but then he turned around to his room. Naruto was only a little kid and it would be very unfortunate if he got the kid sick when he was only a guest with no chance of repaying for the hospitality 'I'll be in the bed until then.'

The younger man took another step back to let the other pass, expression changing to concern.

'Are... are you feeling sick?'

The redhead blinked and curled up only a bit, covering himself even more with the blanket of that was possible.

'Not really.' he muttered, walking away 'But just in case, keep the kid away from me.'

Minato nodded absently, more automatic reaction than actually thinking what the man had just said, then actually stopped to analyze it- the redhead didn't really look ill. He just looked like someone who had the world crumble beneath his feet and was thinking very hard if getting up was worth it just in case it decided to get destroyed further. Either way, it was probably better for everyone involved if Naruto did stay away from him. He felt a little awkward coming back almost immediately after, but he had put the soup on the fire before going to check on the man, so it was already boiling by the time he finished telling Naruto to stay away in case he caught germs.

'Food's on the table.' besides the man's dish, he had served himself a small bowl and another for the little blond, who was carefully munching on the beef bits before slurping on the noodles- it seemed the only way to make Naruto chew instead of simply inhaling his food was to add meat into it.

Daichi, who didn't try to get into the bed again in fear he would get too weak on the will to get up, slowly walked up to the table. He tried to undo his bandage and he was only halfway as the thing was giving him much more pain than he thought it will – the broken blisters actually glued the thing to the blisters that weren't broken and made him break them in the process also. He decided to bandage the hand once again to just not have it dangling around the table and get into doing it again later. The kid would get better with not seeing his hand now also.

He walked up to the table, a bit surprised at the tune he caught with passing by – it sounded like something he was used to listening when he was young – which meant rather hard sounds. He was not expecting from the blond to be listening to such things, the man didn't seem to be the one to listening to anything that wasn't Beethoven or Chopin. One more example to prove how much looks lied. He looked at the man's back for a moment, reminding himself about how the tones played out on the notes and watched with kind pleasure how the table was decorated with the blonde's hands and how he took care of Naruto's plate.

It was only a moment later when he remembered that he was not watching a movie (it resembled of something to him, but he couldn't put a finger on it)and that he was not cut out of the scenery. Then the faces of his own kids interrupted and he felt the dread rushing back at him with the force of galloping horses.

'Good evening.' he muttered, finally entering the room and sitting down. He barely glanced at the kid already eating his food and looked down at the plate of soup. It looked warm, it looked tasty and it looked like a piece of art on the wall – edible paint and decorative food, something he could look at but not eat. Despite the feeling, he glanced around, noting that both blonds were already eating, so he bowed down a little, muttered a phrase of politeness and slowly started eating the thing. It had a good taste and it filled him from the inside with warmth, but his hunger was still blocked and he could only do so much as swallowing and pretending he had appetite for it.

Minato stopped his pho snack to look at the redhead, surprised by the man's comment, then slowly flushed as he remembered the kid's words - specifically how no one ate until everyone was at the table. For complaining so much about his son's manners, his own seemed to be lacking on the general department. Not that he meant to, he was just too used to living on his own with Naruto, and even when it had been him and Kushina, there had never been heavy etiquette, much less with Jiraiya. And even before… yeah, he was so not getting into that.

'…still hurting?' he asked, looking at the bandaged hand. At least the man was eating now, when he'd gone to the room he'd seen about half of the painkillers gone from the packet, all those chemicals on an empty stomach couldn't be very good for anyone. Even inhuman freaks of nature such as this man who didn't bat an eye to being covered in snow and burnt with boiling coffee.

The redhead looked up from the plate, his mouth tasting now more like a soup than an old sock. It was nice indeed. He looked down at his hand. It shook a bit with the pressure he was putting on the spoon but beside that he had no problem with holding anything with it – his fingers bent still and it was upper part of his hand that suffered more.

'Not at all. Thank you.' he muttered after he swallowed the pieces he had in mouth. 'And how is… um… your work?...' Now that was uncomfortable. He was not sure what to ask about since he just lied in the room for the most of the time. Both blonds stopped at that, looking up at the redhead as if a third eye of enlightenment was in the process of developing in his forehead. Close encounter of the third kind. the older man thought, his son probably doing the equivalent in less sarcastic or trivia filled terms. He was used to trying to make the awkward conversations on his own, not to have the redhead actually attempt to follow them. Minato wondered (probably for the first time) if the older man was also bothered for the uncomfortable silence that often seemed to follow them around.

'It's- ah… it's going well, thank you.'

'Ah… I see.' said the man and bended down to eat more of the soup, even if it looked even less tasty than before. 'So… so you had no problems with doing… words and… things?'

Slowly, very slowly a heavy flush made the way onto his cheeks, coloring him quite strongly. As much as he felt good with making conversation with his kids, he was doing a bad job now. It was possibly because he knew his kids and what to ask them to avoid the topics that would get him into such situations. But what to talk about with a man whom he knew only barely? He knew they spent some time trying to talk, but he was always so tired during those he barely remembered what they were about.

And now, he thought that work would be a neutral ground but he barely knew what a work of such kind contained so he pushed himself into the hole on his own will. Great. He glanced at the little blond, feeling even more uncomfortable as the kid was there to encounter all this. If anything, he'd rather have no audience or… or…

'I'm done. Thank you.' he muttered quickly, leaving the spoon on the table and glaring at the soup he didn't eat when he got up from the table. 'I'll go change bandages now.'

'No, I'm fine…' the blond smiled lightly 'if I have any doubts I can check online or in the dictionaries.' He blinked at the way the man flushed, quickly looking away as well even though he felt oddly better at the thought he wasn't the only one in this world who felt like an incredible idiot when unable to come up with good topic conversations. As the man suddenly got up, however, he glanced down at the soup, then at the man, wondering if maybe he hadn't liked it- not everyone in the world had to have the same tastes both of them did- then quickly stood up, following after.

'Wait- I'll help you.' It would be easier for the man to have help if he needed his right hand bandaged. The redhead looked up at him, like of he had just said that he will be the one to cut off the heads of the newly brought babies. But then he looked away even more embarrassed. He was a stubborn man but he didn't want to start a stubborn argument over the head of the still eating kid. Somehow, the presence of Naruto shunned him.

'I…. I will manage.' he said finally with a frown. And then he looked away. '…a help would be nice though.'

Minato beamed at him, not really having expected such quick agreement.

'Let's go to the bathroom, then. The gauze will probably get off easier if we get it wet'.

Besides, it was probably high time to remove the old capes of cream the man had slathered on the wound beforehand. The man followed him obediently, though not without giving a glare toward the little kid. He was sure that what he saw on his face was a curiosity. The kid had it far too much for his age.

'That's not something for kids to see.' he muttered finally and left. Now his conscience was calmed down.

'_Ale ja chcę_!' the little blond wailed from his spot in the kitchen, the amount of whining in the tone leaving few options but the boy complaining about the unfairness of such decision. It didn't seem to move his father at all, thought.

'_Nie_, Naru.'

'Daddy!'

'I said no!' With a sigh, the older man finally turned the door partially on the bathroom, half-shielding them from the hallway, then giving a look at the mess of bandages. Rather than try to tug the bindings loose, he reached into the cabinet and fiddled around until he found the small scissors kept there and cut vertically across the man's hand, then opened the cold water.

The man winced at the cutting as the scissors surely damaged the bandages but also what was glued to them but he kept his tongue to himself. At the kid's wail however he opened it.

'Kids can be too curious sometimes…' he said in a conversational tone before he caught himself on that he actually called off the child of his host. He paled a little which washed off his blush finally and immediately put the hand under the cold water, hissing at the first feeling and sighing with relief at the numbing freeze. Only now he remembered how good it felt to be actually healthier.

'Naru is the worst of them all.' Minato said, affection clear in his voice. 'He is like his mother that way.' The blond put the scissors away with a small smile, giving the man time for the material to absorb enough water and would pry more easily afterwards. Clearly, he didn't think what the man had said to be an unforgivable offense, or even worth registering too much depth.

'Is that so.' said the man, a bit nervously glancing around as his adrenaline rate was still a bit high. With a light cough he hunched over the sink, slowly trying to remove bandages under the water. He didn't know what kind of woman was the wife of the blond, but it was more than obvious that it was not his father's behavior the kid inherited. It felt strange to imagine him with a female acting just as curious as a little child. As far as he thought, the man could find someone just as calm as himself to accompany himself through life, but it seemed he was wrong. That must've been one crazy family of blondes then.

The blond hmm-ed noncommittally, but it was distracted noise, the vague smile still in place. He stopped from picking the discarded pieces of soaked gauze piling at the bottom of the sink to give the man a concerned look.

'You've been coughing a bit since yesterday, you sure you feel okay? I have cold medicine if you need some.'

The man looked up at him but then lowered his gaze once again.

'No. Thanks, but now.' he muttered a bit bemused 'I feel fine.'

Nodding, the blond squeezed the excess of water from the gauze and dropped the crumpled mess on the trash, looking around in the cabinet until he found a new packet and then finally turned to give a good look at the hand. The image made him feel vaguely ill, not as much due appearance- not that it wasn't worthy- but just about thinking how painful that had to be. Most of the blisters had been torn open, only one or two of the smaller ones remaining. The water obviously didn't help the loose skin look any more attractive, but the worst was that in the bits of broken skin, normal-colored flesh could be seen, and comparing the shade to the harsh pink of the burns, the difference was pretty outstanding. He bit back a curse, grabbing for the antiseptic.

'How did you do this to yourself? That must be hurting like hell.'

'Do you think I remember?' said the man, not being very sincere 'I was drunk.' And besides, such things happened to him all the time. Almost like if someone was taking fun in seeing him suffer up there above.

'You weren't drunk last night, when-' Minato stopped, understanding the man meant how he did it at the time while he was referring to an altogether different timeframe. 'I- I meant last night. After you went to bed. These weren't like this after we finished fixing the room.'

The man looked up at him with a frown.

'How am I supposed to know?' he asked, uncomfortable by the question. What was he supposed to answer to that? He remembered felling off the bed right onto it, nothing else. 'I slept.'

'I can't believe you ate with this hand.' the tone of disbelief in the blond voice was suspended by some suspended admiration, regardless of the disaster he was generously coating with the hopefully numbing cream. There wasn't much else said as he continued carefully smearing the substance over the open sores. 'I was thinking…'

The blond said after a while, his head cautiously lowered, ostensibly to be sure of what he was doing. 'Maybe you should call your kids to tell them you will be staying here. So they know you are okay.'

The man didn't say anything to that.

The blond said nothing for several seconds, obviously not wanting to push the matter, but he could only hold it off until he was done with the cream and started with the gauze- if he took any longer, he feared the man might bolt away.

'You need to call your kids, Sabaku-san. And your lawyer. I didn't get all of what you told me yesterday, but-' he hesitated. 'The sooner you get one that can actually help you, the sooner he can start fixing whatever mess the last one left on your documents. A good defense takes time to be built, and you need time to be couched…'

The redhead lowered his hand at that, not letting the man finish with the process.

'Please, be quiet.' he muttered in more than annoyed tone. If he could he'd threaten to leave it alone, thinking about all this was too painful 'If you want to call my kids, you have my cell phone. I am not going to do it now.'

The blond flinched at that, for once the reaction looking to be more from hurt than fear. He debated doing as the man had suggested- calling the kids himself, but… That would get him into troubles with 'Mommy'. He just knew that. And even if he did, it wouldn't solve the redhead's problems.

'It wouldn't be me they'd want to hear from, Sabaku-san.' he said gently, arms crossing in front of himself and grabbing lightly at his sweater. 'It doesn't have to be that hard. Just call them to let them know you are here, you don't need to say much else.'

The man at that had frowned even more.

'How can you demand something like that from me?' he asked in a hushed tone, feeling more than appalled by the words that were uttered toward him. How could the man even ask something like that from him? He had failed as a father. How he was supposed to even face his daughter after what he did? He was not emotionally ready for that. 'I can't call them.'

'I'm not demanding anything...' this time the younger man did take a small step back 'I'm just trying to tell you- you should call them. They must be worried.'

Daichi had only tched at that. If anyone was worried, then it was him. His kids surely were having the time of their life there. Or at least he hoped so. He couldn't bear the idea of them suffering under Yashamaru's care. Especially now that he couldn't do anything about that. He remembered how his both sons were happy about that journey though. That alone was enough to leave the cell off. Let them miss him. (if they could do that)

At the response blond took another step back, reaching for the door to open it and leave, but he doubted again on the doorframe. He turned to stare at the older man, eyes going to the remaining bandages, but then just shrugging.

'This isn't something I'm doing to hurt you, please understand that. I know you are hurting now, but I told you- it won't go away just because you try not to think about it. And the more time that passed, not only will it be harder on you psychologically, but also legally. I don't know what sort of relationship you have with your in law, but I know it's not good. Do you want to have him tell your kids you aren't calling because you don't care or something awful like that?'

'They should know that I care for them enough without me calling them.' said Daichi in a bit stubborn way. Sure, the blond had some right there, but he was not in the state to admit it. 'Don't talk like if you know how it is.'

Minato frowned, but his tone remained calm.

'Kids don't think like adults. They won't understand legal technicalities or that you can't help what's happening beyond the fact that they aren't with you anymore and that you didn't even try to call them- in how many days already?'

Daichi had only winced at that. Really, how many days has it been now?... He counted quietly, his wince deepening with every added number until he finally closed the tap as he couldn't do anything more violent in such space.

'Excuse me.' he muttered as he walked out of the bathroom and headed toward his room. He didn't remembered where was his cell phone, but it had to be in his ruined suit, right? Incidentally, he started looking through it until he saw it. The dial tone, surprisingly, wasn't blocked by the voice mail anymore.

'Hello, Happy Tooth clinic, the Karakuri speaking! How can I help you?' sung in his ear almost like a tune. And it was so false it hurt.

'It's me.' he mumbled. It was him and Yashamaru knew it, because he was not calling the stationary phone in his clinic, but the blond obviously decided to play it dumb.

'Who "me"?' he chirped almost too happily 'Were you appointed to the visit? Or do you want to sign up for one?' That was almost enough for the redhead.

'Yes, please, sign up Karakuri no Yashamaru for the massive teeth knock out.' he said and it was only not aggressive because he had to gasp to cough 'It's me, Daichi!'

'Ah, Daichi! I almost didn't recognize you!' said Yashamaru with emphasis on 'almost', even more happier now though Daichi didn't think it was possible. 'What can I do for you my dear in-law?'

(Can I laugh in your face?) Daichi smiled with smile as bitter as false it was.

'Yes, please.' he muttered just as sweetly, putting in acid in spoonfuls. 'Give me my children to the phone.'

'Oh, 'your children'?' said Yashamaru genuinely surprised. Daichi felt like a vein or two popped out on his forehead 'I'm sorry, that's not possible… I don't see any of 'your children' around…'

'Stop playing games with me!-'

'Bye!' And that was it. The dial tone was cut off so suddenly he started talking to it, only noticing after a moment there was no one on the other side to listen to him. He blinked and redialed the number, but no one picked up this time. So much for calling his kids.

The blond was at the door, having followed but again not entered the room. He blinked when the man stared at the phone device.

'...did he hang up on you?'

Daichi blinked and looked up.

'I told you it's no use calling anyone.' he muttered with a blame in his voice. He wanted to blame anything so much right now, because he couldn't carry on with everything for much longer. And Minato was the closest thing around.

'He can't do that, you are their father!' the blond sounded more shocked than upset about the tone the other was using, and he took several steps closer to the older man. 'Did the court say you couldn't call them or that you had some sort of prohibition to contact them?'

The redhead had slowly shook his head, but then he had simply threw the phone into the blond's hands and laid down, covering himself with the blanket until he was hidden under it completely.

'I can't do anything anymore. Do what you want.'

Minato tried to catch it, fumbling with the thing, but then it fell down on the floor. Thankfully it was carpeted, but even so he hurried to pick it up and make sure there was no damage to it.

'I…hey!' standing back up, he reached for the man's blanket, pulling it away. 'If there is no reason for you not to call them, then he can't not give them to you. That goes against your rights as their father, you need to call court and let them know right now- actually, no, wait, let me get the microphone-' And just like that, the blonde left the room. Daichi had only curled up in his position, like if the lack of the blanket was a punch in the sensitive area. Once the man left he quickly got up and grabbed the remaining sheets only to hide under them all the same. Crying in the presence of another man was shameful enough to show himself up like that and he had enough dignity to at least try to hide it away. He was not drunk enough to let it slip. Call the kids, call the court… the man wanted him to do something when he had no willpower to do anything. The world outside was too big, the world outside was too scary, the world outside was an ocean that took away his kids and he couldn't swim anymore. He loved them more than anything but he just couldn't. He gave up.

He searched blindly for the old dusty toy he left in the corner of the bed and hugged it like if he would hug any of his kids if he could. Gods, where were they now.

In the meantime, the blond had gone to his own room and started taking down some boxes on top of the dresser, filing through several pieces belonging to his laptop and other attachments for cell phone and the computer. He had gotten the recorder at the cusp of his paranoia back to years ago when his lawyer suggested it, and then just kept using it to keep track of work related calls. He had liked it so much he had bought a recorder for the normal phone, which was already installed, and one for his cell phone. But of course, when he needed the thing, he couldn't find it.

'Naru!'

'Yah?' the little blond was next to him in an instant. Suspiciously fast, and he would have scolded him for eavesdropping, but he was angry at the man for acting like a victim and at the in law for being such a bitch. Even when he'd been at the hospital, he had been allowed to call Naruto. And Jiraiya obviously wasn't some gender confused creep, but even if he had been- 'Have you seen the call recorder?'

His son stared at him blankly. '…in the computer?'

Minato actually turned to stare at him, wondering how the hell he had managed to plug a cell phone recorder on the computer when all it had were usb plugs, before quickly realizing he meant the program he used to store the Skype calls as .mp3 files.

'No, no, the one that goes to the ear, the one for my cell!' More blank staring.

'The earphones?' Naruto's face brightened with recognition. 'The earplug thingy?'

'Yes!'

'Nope.' He nearly moaned. Where the hell had he left the thing? He couldn't even remember when was the last time he had used it.

It took him well over half an hour of dark mutters against 'overpriced technological crap' to find it, and by the end of it his room didn't look much different from the one Sabaku was sleeping now, only without the in depth cleaning and organizing of the last twenty four hours. The device was, from all things, neatly kept in a box labeled as 'phone', which probably was the first place he should have looked in, but he had just assumed it was the manual and guarantee of his cell phone and overlooked it. It even had the recording device already attached to it and everything.

'Found it!' Not a second later he was back in the room, little blond on tow with the device at his hand. The cell phone was still where he had left it, so he fiddled with it a bit until he found the right plug for it, while Naruto stared in curiosity at the mound of blanket-covered man. 'Here, try to call him again- just put this plug in your ear first when you do.'

The redhead immediately came out from the cover, trying to act as natural as he could, but he couldn't just erase the fact his face was once again reddened by crying in the closed space. He glanced at the little blond but didn't even try to explain anything. The toy lied uncovered behind him, just as suspicious as everything else. He dialed the number and waited, sniffing up a bit at the stuffed nose that didn't go away in the last half an hour. This time the phone was picked up almost immediately.

'Yashamaru' he started, but instead of anything coherent, a loud squeal ringed right into his ear, followed by a torn up wail.

'Daddyyy!' it sounded in a girl's voice. Daichi blinked, surprised, then hunched even more, quickly wiping his nose with a sleeve but much in vain as his eyes teared up almost instantly at the sound. There she was, his little girl.

'Temari.' he muttered, trying to sound at least a bit reassuring, but his voice shook on its own. 'How are you?...'

'Daddy, take me away from here!' cried immediately ignoring all of what he said 'Daddy, please, I don't like it, it's stupid, uncle keeps on acting strange and I don't like it, daddy, daddy, please- no! No, leave me alone- Give it back-'

''Happy Tooth Clinic', how can I help you?' sounded sweetly in the receiver again 'Or can I, Daichi?' This time the sweetness was indeed induced with arsenic.

Minato had started to steer the little blond away when the man seemed to be able to catch hold of the little girl, but he quickly came back at the change of expressions on the man's face.

'Don't tell him you are recording this!' he mouthed emphatically, arms clutching at his son more than holding him now.

Daichi immediately stood up, barely noticing the presence of the blonds now as he was flustered at even hearing the known voice. He… what was he doing to his daughter?

'I want to talk to my kids!' he roared, but he was almost immediately interrupted.

'And I want to know why are you calling from Uzumakis place.' sounded this time three degrees colder than usual. 'Are you parasiting on the poor man's back? How shameless.'

'It's none of your business.' hissed the redhead, walking around the room now, passing the little kid with a little push that he would give to any animal standing on his way now. 'I want to talk with my kids! Give them to the phone!'

'But of course.' said Yashamaru, sounding completely unconcerned about the crying in the background. 'Here you are. Now let's go, Temari-'

'No! I don't wanna! I want daddy! Daddyyy!...' Something (possibly door) clicked and the cry muffled enough to not become an obstacle to the breathing that sounded in the receiver. Daichi waited for a moment until he calmed down enough to sit. He had two choices and he didn't even had to guess who it was. Gaara would never stay quiet for so long. 'Hey.' He said finally. The apathetic voice uttered a sound of a greeting but without any inclination to follow forward. Daichi looked down, feeling that despite anything, his throat hurt now much more from the squeeze than it did before.

'How are you?' he asked as lightly as he could. He could almost hear the shrug of an arms.

'Fine.' sounded Kankuro, once again giving him curt answer. Daichi bit on his lower lip and looked up at the blond in loss.

'Are you all right there? Is everyone healthy?' he asked uncomfortably. Once again there was a short pause that could only get the shrug in and nothing more.

'I guess.' said the boy quietly. Daichi looked down at the floor, thinking up the questions frantically.

'And your sister? What's happening there?'

'Dunno.'

'And Gaara? Is Gaara all right?'

'Probably.'

'Can you get him to the phone?'

'No.'

'Why not?'

''Cause he is sleeping.' Sleeping? Now that was new.

'Then…' said Daichi, stopping for a moment to wonder about the possibilities. But then, he decided to toss away the emotions for the sake of greater goods. '…wake him up. I want to say hi to him.' 'Uhn.' which sounded like 'yes' and like 'no', but above anything, the most like 'I don't wanna'. Daichi bit his lip again.

'Can you do that?'

'I can.' said Kankuro. This time something new showed in his voice, making Daichi frown. It was not a pleasing tone.

'Then do that, please.' He muttered. But he didn't hear steps or creaks or anything. 'Kankuro?...'

'Is that all?' said the boy, sounding now more woken up, but mostly angry now. Daichi blinked.

'What do you mean-'

'Is that all you want?' said Kankuro, this time sounding even more enraged 'You call for the first time in almost a week and once I get the phone all you ask about is that stupid Temari and Gaara! It's always like that!' Daichi stopped, dumbfounded. What?

'You know that's not right-' he started with a light laughter, not believing his ears.

'It is! It's always is!' this time almost yelled into his ear, angry like never before. He couldn't believe that so much rage could hide in such a little body of his middle child 'It's always them, them, them, you never care about me! I hate you!'

'Kankuro!' he shouted, surprised. How could he even say that? 'Stop it right now!'

'No!' said the angered voice, this time mixing with another new tone, very known for him. It were tears. 'I'm not going to stop! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! And I love you very little!' Which apparently seemed to be two different things for his kid. Which didn't make it any less painful. He sniffed up. Once again wiping his face with a sleeve, curling a bit more under such words, even if normally he wouldn't flinch physically at that. 'Kankuro…' he started, wanting to yell at his kid for being so blinded, but he was not even given a chance to apologize.

'Don't call me anymore!... I won't wake up Gaara! Mooom!...'

There was a loud clack which more or less was a phone hitting the hard surface of something – maybe table, maybe floor – and quick steps followed with a cry, that mixed with another one somewhere on the way. After a few moments the device was picked up.

'Shhh, darling.' muttered quietly and so, so familiar. Too familiar. 'Look what you did – I give you a child for one moment and you immediately make two of them cry. I hope you're happy. Goodbye.'

And with that, the phone went deaf. Daichi slowly, very slowly put out the earphone out of his ear and put away the phone with a precision of the surgeon.

'Excuse me.' he muttered and hunched forward as much as he could, until he hid his own head between his knees, securing his head with hands in the hair. And then, he cried quietly, doing everything to not utter the sound as he barely had control over anything else anymore.

It had taken a while for Minato to notice he was still holding Naruto like his very own whiskered stress ball, but as the conversation turned more and more grim he quickly ushered the kid away. Not that Naruto did, the boy just walked far enough he wouldn't be visible and stayed as close at the door as he could to listen. He didn't understand much of what was happening, only that his dad for some reason had told Gaara's dad to tape a call that was really, really bad.

In the meantime, Minato was at loss of what to do. Part of him wanted to pick the cell and listen right now to find out what could have been so horrible that it had put the man in this state. The other was informing him that the 'guy code' stated he was supposed to ignore this and leave until the man had time to compose himself. Later they could pretend it hadn't happened at all and save some face, but both of these options seemed wrong to him.

The man might want to be left alone, but he had left him alone enough the previous day. Willingly or not, he couldn't let the redhead to simmer in this helplessness, because it had taken long enough to convince him to call. After this, it would be even harder and he was going to need the encouragement. And besides… If he had been in his place, he wouldn't have wanted to be left alone. It was too overwhelming.

'Hey.' he said softly, one hand lightly grabbing the bandaged one by the forearm (the wrist was still a landmine of sores and blisters)and tried to tug it away from the man's hair, where the grip was likely to just agitate the burns, sitting next to him. It was close enough he could feel the subtle heat of the man's body, yet not enough to touch, which was a lot closer that he had let himself be to anyone in over a year 'Hey, you'll hurt yourself like that…'

Daichi had only shook his head, indicating that if anything, he cared very little for burns and everything else on the world. Why was the man still there? Couldn't he see how miserable he was? If he wanted to talk he was cornering him in one of the worst situations he could do that. And as unbelievable it was, it was also one of the best times to do that as he was too bare and too weak to defend himself In such a breaking point. But he was not going to tell that to anyone in the world, especially as he didn't admit it to himself yet.

'Go away.' he rasped between his breaths, as loudly as he could without sobbing openly, which meant a rather quiet volume. He gripped his head even tighter as his muscles tensed even more at the feeling of humiliation. It was even harder to stay quiet when he had to talk too. Minato winced at the action- even if the bandages shielded the hand, he could easily feel the tendons and muscles on the arm tense as the man curled even more on himself.

'Oh, please.' his hands hovered uselessly over the shaking form, before gingerly laying one splayed over the man's back, as carefully as possible. It was just as warm as touching Naruto, perhaps even a little warmer, and a little part of himself was surprised when the world didn't cave around him. 'Please, don't do that.' He didn't answer to the man's request, even if he had heard it clearly, despite how clogged his voice was.

Daichi, surprisingly, didn't jump up to roar at the man or to bite his head off, he didn't also morph into a pool of mold because of shame and turn into the mist of nothing. It was a bit surprising for him too, but then not really, not that much, especially as he was at a very close verge of breaking through the last bits of his male pride he had always hold onto. Without noticing, his muscles turned into a stone as he tried to still along with everything else – shaking, crying, doing anything – and at the same time shaking even more, crying twice as hard and even quicker. Was he so pitiful that the blond didn't dare to leave him alone? Was it so bad he had to be treated such way?

But then it all felt so nice, too nice, too tender and hell, if he would strain his imagination for a moment he could even find something akin of warm emotions in it, even of the relationship he had with the man was more of a pity, debt and awkwardness. And once he felt the touch upon his back it reminded him that nobody really cared to touch him for a week (so short? So long?) and the need to any kind of comforting grew to impossible humongous levels as all this just really hurt – just and so much because it was no more and no less but a simple pain of loss. (I miss them so much)

'I'm sorry…' he clattered through the clacking teeth as the muscles of his jaw were too tense to act naturally 'I'm sorry…' (for what I'm about to do) (but I can't) (anymore) And with that, he finally let go of his hair to cover up his face out of shame, out of dignity, out of a habit. And then, finally, he let out a howl of pain – and it was wordless, long and filled with everything he held in himself for so long, anguish being the main word. (it all is so hard, you see)

The man's words made him feel far more awkward than the way he was crumbling. It seemed his touch had triggered a breakdown and all things considered, he couldn't blame him. Unlike him, the man had a man who hated his guts taking care of his children, even if Minato had been found unfit to take care of Naruto, Kaho would have had to fight for it with Jiraiya.

If the scene at the diner was any sort of clue, the man couldn't even count with what remained of his family to help him through this situation, not financially or even as emotional support. From what he remembered the man telling him month ago, they hadn't approved of his marriage. This man literally had no one to help him through this.

'Don' say that.' he said just as quietly as the older man had, only his voice was a lot easier to understand 'You don't have anything to apologize to me for.'

He didn't move away or do anything outrageous like get up and leave, or pretend this wasn't happening, or jump out of the window and try to climb the two stores down. He just stayed where he was, pressing his hand a bit more firmly on the man's back and rubbing lightly, like Naruto when he felt sick. When that didn't seem to work, he awkwardly wrapped his arm around the man's back loosely.

'It's okay, I'll help you.'

And that was the last straw on the path of Daichi's hold. Without saying a word (without ability to say anything) he had just leaned toward the man's side, not really making it into a hug or even a full lean like in the cheap cinema romance, but the balance visibly shifted. He still didn't uncover his face or even get a moment to say his 'thank you's (which he wanted to say, but it was a bit impossible as once he started crying openly he just couldn't stop), but the grip on his shoulders let go, making him shake loosely in the cry a sign of slight relaxation. That- (felt so good for a moment to hear something like that to be comforted to see a helping hand to feel the caring touch) -was embarrassing but he needed it. For once he had to admit it. A good place to wind up through storm. It surprised Minato, not getting violently thrown off or cursed or even gently rejected, but given the circumstances, it was probably for the best.

His eyes went to the recorder, still attached to the cell phone, and all he wanted was to pick it up and listen to the call and see what had all of this been about, but he couldn't exactly leave the man in this state, much less kindly ask him to get over it so he could do it without feeling guilty. It took several minutes for the older man to get himself under control, and when he did, he looked a mess. His face was red, especially around the eyes and nose, he looked more feverish that he had before and hair was rumpled beyond recognition (which oddly enough made him look significantly younger).

Before he could start apologizing or found some excuse to be left alone, Minato asked him if he would please help him prepare dinner and kind of dragged him to the kitchen before he could protest. Truthfully he had no idea what he was going to make, pizza had sounded like an appropriate setting, but he hardly could claim to need help for that. A quick look through the fridge told him he could sacrifice several ingredients for something a bit more complicated than usual- well, not really that complicated. The actual time of cooking was barely twenty minutes, but the cutting of all the ingredients took some time.

He started piling the vegetables in the sink to clean: a couple carrots, some cucumber, a zucchini, what was left from the green onions he'd used for pizza two days ago, two normal onions and a whole large pepper. He wasn't sure if he still had green beans, but there might be a can lurking around, and he always had soy sprouts in the house. He used them for practically all foods or salads and he liked to have at least one bag to snack on if he was working.

All that cutting couldn't be good for the man's hand, though, so instead he just gave him a potato peeler and pushed him to the sink.

'Please peel the carrots and the cucumber.' he asked him, placing a large bowl next to him. 'Then just keep peeling the carrot inside the bowl, the shavings are the right size for the food.' He had his own pile of vegetables to clean, cut and dice.

The man nodded, a bit out of his mind as he was given potato peeler. He didn't find the thing degrading as he was the only cook in his own house and he used it more often than not. It seemed like a fair state of work anyway, he barely did or could do anything to repay his stay now. But right now holding the vegetables in his blistered hands added pushing pressure to it and that mixed with wetness and repeated pattern quickly tired his hand out. That's why, only when he was managing to get done the second carrot, the peels were everywhere around his hands, only forty percent of them in a bowl and like if this wasn't enough, his hand slipped and he cut right through the vegetable, leaving one part in his hand and the second… At least it sounded nice when the vegetable banged along one of the cups before it broke into shards on the floor. He gazed at it in silence. He wasn't sure now, but he thought he saw this cup before.

Minato (who was in the middle of cutting some chicken breast and tights into square bite-sized pieces) nearly lost a finger at the sound of the clatter. He nicked the side of his forefinger instead, letting out a hiss before shoving the whole hand under the faucet.

'Did you hurt yourself?' he asked, despite the fact the one bleeding down the drain this time was him. He looked down at the bowl, grabbing a paper napkin and wrapping it around the finger carefully, then leaning down to scoop up the broken ceramic.

'What did'ya breeeak~?' came the somewhat gleeful voice from somewhere out of the room.

'Nothing!' And it was true. This time it wasn't his fault. The death of his laughing squid mug couldn't possibly be blamed on him as he was a good meter away from it at the moment of the crime. The redhead shook his head and sighed.

'I'm sorry.' he muttered. He was such a klutz with his hand like that now. 'I will pay for that.' Once he will have the money, he would be surely indebted big in this family. The blond shook his head absently, picking the carrot slices next and dropping them under the faucet to 'Don't worry, I'm always breaking these-' As if summoned by the words, the little blond appeared by the door, blue eyes wide.

'What do you mean you didn't break it?' In his short expanse of life experience, crashing things meant his father was somewhere around.

'…I'm always breaking those.' he finished, shrugging a little. 'I shouldn't have made you do that, I'm sorry. I should have let you rest your hand-' he had kind of assumed he would use the other one to work, though. His fault for not checking. 'Naru, get me something to sweep this off, please.'

Naruto, however, had his eyes on what his father had been cutting. It looked like leftover meat from the pho and a piece of chicken. Meat two days in a row…? Maybe having the man over wouldn't be completely awful. Daichi on the other hand, frowned at the little kid.

'I'll get it.' he muttered as the kid seemed to be mesmerized by the kitchen. Then he frowned at the kid even more and got the thing to the blond. He didn't dare to say anything, but if it were his kid, he would scold him for not acting right away on the order. When he came back, the little blond was clinging to his father's legs, the older blond not seeming to notice as he kept systematically cutting onion after onion in thin arches, piling them in a different bowl. The half carrot the redhead had decapitated was on Naruto's hands, being noisily munched on by said little blond, one sided alienese-conversation interrupted mid word to stare back at the redhead.

'You're even more clumsy than daddy.'

'Naruto!' The little blond just pouted and changed his position so his father's frame protected him from the redhead's larger frame.

'At least I try to help.' said Daichi with a little frown still. 'Instead of eating that you could do something instead.'

The little boy instantly bristled, munching on his carrot stick even more nosily if possible.

'At least when I help I don't mess up.'

'Naruto.' More hiding, bright blue eyes narrowed.

Daichi had snorted lightly under his nose.

'I don't see you doing anything.'

'I was talking with my daddy until you interrupted.' he said self sufficiently, actually going as far as to stick his tongue out at the man. Minato took the chance to run a slice of onion on the pink appendage, extracting a yelp from the little blond, followed by theatrical gagging.

Daichi laughed at that under his nose. All in all, however you looked at it, the blond was still a kid and even if he tried to be cocky with him, he was still a child.

'If you could only see yourself.' he taunted lightly 'Big boys eat onions without batting an eyelash.'

The little boy paused in between clawing at the refrigerator with one hand as he clutched his throat and doing a rather impressive imitation of someone who had swallowed a poisonous mushroom to glare at the redhead, tongue out again- only this time he was wiping at it with a sleeve.

'You must reeeally like onions, then.' he said around a mouthful of sleeve, before adding something muffled enough that just barely sounded like 'onion breath'. There was an odd sound from the older blond, something between a cough and a sneeze that went unexplained as he hunched over himself a little more, shoulder shaking slightly as he busied himself with cutting peppers into sticks with the precision of a master surgeon.

That made the man lose his gleeful expression and once again turn it into a frown. He didn't answer though, it was not his kid and he was not the one to teach such brats about the manners. If he did, this would make it all more uncomfortable and rude. He knew he would get mad if anyone corrected him on his way of teaching his children, no matter what. He licked his teeth, staring at the wall. Why yes, he could wash his teeth. He wouldn't have to be around those two then. Without a word, he got up and went to the bathroom only to remember that all his personal things were in his car. He didn't dare to ask for a toothbrush before, so just like before, he simply washed his mouth with a finger, the first primitive tool a man came up with in prehistorical era (and it was multifunctional).

He looked up, seeing that his beard already grew enough to actually show a color on his face – it looked grotesque, because, just as his pubic and armpit area, the hair were shorter, tougher and also brighter, so he looked like if he dyed it. But as everything else – his shaver was left in the car also. 'Boy, wouldn't that make grandpa happy.' he murmured to himself. 'Father' he corrected himself then. Once he got Temari and the following kids the only times he recalled his parents were when the kids asked about them and he had to call them 'grandparents' then. A habit stayed.

He heaved his shoulders and decided to wash his face. There. A bit more fresh. He looked out of the door, wondering if he could walk out to his room again without bothering anyone. But then he scolded himself for acting like a small kid. He was running away from the four years old. Yay, he was already getting senile. Whee.

On the way back to the kitchen, he nearly tripped with the little blond, who was sitting right next to the bathroom, curled into a little ball. It was amazing how quiet someone as normally noisy when prompted for it.

'Daddy says I have to say I'm sorry.' he explained, a discontent expression on his plump face, as if he couldn't understand the reason for such an abject injustice in this world. '_Przepraszam_. How old are you anyway?' Obviously the fact asking in such a way was far from polite and kind of negated the apology seemed to go right over his head, though given his age, it was probably forgivable. Possibly.

Daichi had blinked, a bit surprised that he actually stepped on a kid when in years he had the spidey sense when it came to the little things wandering around the legs, but then, the kid was unusual one. He was sure he rarely saw such bold kids before. So he stood upright and crossed his arms, waiting for the apology…

…which didn't come. Or maybe it did, if he could tell by the way the word was expressed, but it didn't sound like apology at all. So he simply ignored the question (not that he intended on answering it) and looked down at the kid, waiting.

'Well?'

'Huh?' At the question Naruto blinked, looking up at the older man, then quickly shuffled up to his feet, giving him that thoughtful look that scrunched his face into the usual foxy expression. He looked at him up and down a few times, trying to give an accurate answer to what he had perceived from the question, then shrugged, one hand coming to rub the back of his head thoughtfully. 'I 'unno. A whole bunchaful of old?'

Daichi had only loosened his frown and kneeled down with a smooth face. He didn't uncross his hands though.

'That's not what I asked about.' he said, then poked him on the forehead lightly 'I'm waiting for an apology.'

The expression became even more pouty, if that was possible at all 'But I already did!' He hadn't even wanted to apologize the first time! But his father had said he had to so it hadn't been up for discussion, and he even had, why did he have to say it again?

'I didn't hear it.'

More frowning.

'You don't look that old, either.'

The redhead had only scrunched his nose. It seemed that the kid was already past the age he would listen to older people without asking questions. The hard age.

'I'm only around thirty, but for a kid like you that's probably ages.' he muttered and got up. 'Go back help your dad in the kitchen.'

That answer apparently wasn't what the boy was looking for, because he first blinked, then narrowed his eye suspiciously at the older man, as if he thought him to be lying. He kind of had expected him to be older. Kind of a lot.

'Daddy doesn't need help cooking, he's cutting everything already.' When in a good day, Minato was a dicing machine, something he had learnt first from his then-future-wife, then had ample chance to put to practice in dingy kitchens with too much heat and too little space. Besides, given his accident-prone nature, he tried to make sure Naruto wasn't too close when he started heating water or oil. He stared at the man some more, but as no confession of uttered lies was issued, he rocked a bit on the balls of his feet, looking at the man curiously. He looked kind of weird with the messy hair and the beardish thing.

'My daddy is younger.'

'I'm sure he is.' said the man with a sigh. After all, even when it came to the simplest measures, the man had one child while he had three. People who had more kids by the logic were more mature and old, that's what tradition said. Besides, the man was looking actually like a fashion model or a cutesy girl as he kept his face wrinklesless and clean. It was possible that he looked younger because of his bright hair too. 'Since you don't want to apologize, what else do you want from me?'

Naruto stared at the man blankly for a few moments, shuffling from one feet to another, before giving him a big, hopeful smile.

'Wanna play with me?' then, as it seemed like something that would appeal to the man 'I know where daddy keeps the games with the blood.'

It was Daichi's time to fall silent for a brief moment as he looked down at the kid.

'Aren't you…' he muttered quietly '…a little too young for games with blood?' He wasn't sure about that, he never bought his kids any bloody games and never bothered to even check them out as he had no idea what it was (in his childhood such things didn't exist) and as he was straining from things that could devastate mind of Gaara any further. The boy gave him a foxy grin, nodding his head with obvious pride- of course he was, that's why his daddy hid it from him, but that didn't mean that'd keep him from playing it- if he was quiet, it was really easy to sneak a few games while Minato was on the phone or taking a nap.

'I can go all the way past the green girl, but the yellow guy with the mask who's all 'get over here-!' at this the boy stuck a pose, palm extended and making some sort of sound effect that could be attributed to something being launched from it, a rocket entering orbit or a watermelon that was dropped from a fifth floor. '- always ends up killing me, he, like, rips his face and he's this, this- fwoosh-' now the hands were to his face and up, maybe mimicking and explosion 'and sets me on fire, and then I die and have to start over because there are no save- how come none of my games have save places? All the new games do, did old people not like saving? Did they like starting from the beginning? It's really long sometimes. '

Daichi blinked at the mini theatre that was displayed before him, amazed by the richness of sounds above the actual words. His kids were rarely so spoken up, making it more into gestures or just never-ending streams of words.

'Get over here?' that sounded like things he knew back when he was bored enough to play a game or two at his friends… but that was a really old source of game play in comparison to what kids had today…

'Back then people had more time to waste.' he muttered finally as the answer to questions. It was probably the merchandising too, but he was not sure. But when computers weren't all what it was about the time dropped by quickly a pad and consoles. 'I'm not sure what are you talking about… but I don't see why not.' The kid couldn't have talked about 'Mortal Kombat' anyway – the blond was not such an ancient lover to buy such games for the kid. They were not even considered bloody for nowadays kids.

Apparently the man didn't know that the Mortal Kombat franchise hadn't ever really managed to die, instead raising from the ashes continuously, all the more violent and gory with each resurrection. Not that Naruto would know any of it either- because it was 'Mortal Kombat' – just the one the redhead was thinking of. Mortal Kombat II, to be more specific, the original 1993 version with the options to use of what then had been 'new' warriors such as Baraka, Jax Briggs Kitana, and Mileena against the more classic Reptile, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Raiden, Liu Kang and Shank Tsung, in all of its plastiquy and somewhat blocky Sega cartridge glory.

The little blond expertly blew on the cartridge before slamming it in and turning the device on, the Sega logo flashing for a moment before immediately jumping to the pseudo-Chinese battle tune started, text rolling and explaining how five hundred years ago Shang Tsung had been banished to the earth realm and when he tried to take over the world (Of course) seven warriors stood against him, yadda yadda. All the while, Naruto dutifully pushed the joysticks in their slot to make sure they worked, turned the volume a little lower so the telltale music wouldn't give them away and quickly went back to give the man his controller.

'I want the one with the electricity, he's the best one.' the little blond, already sitting Indian style what probably was a little closer from the TV than was advisable. 'If you pick it too, it gets weird colors.'

Daichi looked at the screen while he sat on the floor covered in his quilt like some kind of heavily sick person or maybe an old man with chills (possibly both) and looked at the logo in awe. Sure, it was awful, it was badly colored and it was nothing in comparison to an advert of the first good yoghurt, but it brought nostalgia like nothing else. He remembered actually coming up far in this and mocking his friends who never managed to get anywhere as he had good eyes for strategy thanks to his piano lessons and motor driving.

'It's for us to not mix.' he muttered and grabbed the kid by a collar, outing him near him, just at the right range from the screen. 'Who would have thought you'd have such a game…'

He clicked on the first person that came to the screen and as it was, it was some Chinese karate guy. Not that it mattered for the first try.

'Which buttons do what?' he asked, looking at the dots on the pad.

The little blond squeaked at the pull, turning to look at him like if maybe he had grown a third head and pulling at the neck of his shirt to straighten it.

'It's daddy's.' he said with a little shrug. His father had a lot of games, much more than the ones he let him play. Sometimes if he asked a whooole lot of times, without stopping, he'd play one for him for a bit. Then, he proceeded to explain the older man what did each button do. By attacking his character without warning. 'So, with this one, you hit low-' low kick. 'and with this one you punch-' high punch 'and this is the super punch~' Liu Kang was thrown several feet up. An unrealistic amount of blood spraying upwards.

Daichi looked at the screen where his character was being already beaten to the point only half of his life stayed on the right color and held the pad up. He couldn't have such a bad memory when it came to this…

'Oh.' he muttered and moved Liu Kang forward, sending him into a set of rapid kicks in the air only to jump right into a fireball canon and a few kicks in the air of which only one reached the other. 'Like that?' It was the most logical that the game was the kid's dad, but he was still having hard time imagining that Naruto was satisfied with such thing, especially with what the modern technology offered to the young audience. But then, it was all the better, people heard so much about violence and what not when it came to games…

It's not that he was satisfied as much as not having much of an option. Minato regularly kept up with what people where playing and when he wasn't horrified by the absurd amounts of gratuitous violence in the games (which he secretly enjoyed, but wouldn't dream of exposing his four year old to) or the camera angles and colors were enough to make him afraid exposure for more than five minutes would cause him an epileptic fit.

As he had grown up with consoles such as Sega Genesis and the Nintendo before it went game cube, it just seemed easier to get the kid stuff that he himself had enjoyed as a child, downright to the games. Tiny Toons adventures seemed like a much better option than this Marjora Mask thingy with the elf that was so popular nowadays. Besides, he has read cursed cartridges were going around. Cursed cartridge never happened in his generation.

'Hey, that's not fair, you didn't say we could use combos!' The kid immediately retaliated with his character doing some sort of superman stunt while shouting vaguely asian-sounding gibberish. Another vicious Hook and the deep voice annunciated that his character was the winner, which the kid decided was a good moment to turn and smile smugly at the older man. 'I won.'

Daichi looked back at him, feeling how his hands hurt a bit with twisting them in directions he didn't need for ages to reach the buttons and shot him a quite amazed gaze. If he remembered it well… His hands made the quick movements over the buttons which he had remembered more by bodily repeat of movements than by what it actually meant and a moment later, the final sound rang through the air again, this time on his side.

'So did I.' he said with amused snicker, looking back at the blond. The kid was entertaining, he had to admit.

Naruto barely had time to gape at the man before turning just in time to see his favorite character sprawled on the floor and the redhead's in a triumphant pose, the narrator's throaty voice congratulating him on a flawless victory.

'You are cheating, you didn't say we could start!' he cried indignantly, diving for his controls and already trying attacks despite the final round not even having started.

'Winning in a fair fight is not cheating.' said Daichi, getting back to his pad once again, waiting for the start to begin. 'If it was cheating it would be forbidden, right?' And right then, he spun Liu Kang into another set of kicking in the midair, even if he didn't really got how he did it. His knowledge on games was very limited by now so he just decided to hit the buttons as randomly as he got them. There wasn't much anyway. So, eventually he lost as the kid had much better idea about what he was doing (of course, since he was the owner of the game) but it didn't faze him in a bit. Instead, he just brushed the kid's hair with a rather rough gesture (but by any means, not harming one) and smiled up at him. 'Don't be so happy you beat the old man in the game.'

The kid smiled up at him, pleased as a clam (or a fox) about his established superiority on game handling, and this time didn't really look freaked out by the rough mussing of hair, even if he still tried to rub it back into place afterwards. He would have probably asked for a rematch (or as close as he could come to pronounce a word ending on 'tch' correctly) if his father hadn't decided to come tell them food was ready on the table.

Minato had immersed himself again in what he was doing, his mind comfortingly blank while he automatically added everything he needed to the wok and worked on the broth and sauce. By the time he realized he hadn't seen or heard of Naruto for the past half hour, the food was done and going to look for him was the most advisable course of action- in his experience, a silent Naruto was a Naruto doing something he didn't want his father to know about.

It only started to occur to him that the older man might have done something to his son when he had reached the room, so he fortunately didn't have much time to start having lucid nightmares about it. When he got to the door, all he saw was the man and Naruto sitting in front of the TV, playing a game.

'Dinner's ready.' he said quietly, surprised to see Naruto so physically close to the redhead when he usually stayed well away from him.

The redhead looked up at him and then at the little kid. Dinner. Right. He let go of the pad and brushed his hand against his beard, which became a lot more stingy than he remembered it. He had to admit he felt a little hungry, even if his hand was still hurting along with his unease.

'We will be right there.' he muttered and got up, moving the quilt over his back again. Then he looked at the little kid, waiting for him.

Naruto had dived for the console the moment he had heard his father, quickly turning it off and hiding the cartridge in an attempt to pass it off as something less prohibited for his possession. He was lucky his father was looking at the man rather than at the TV itself. For someone who had been crying his eyes not too long ago, save from some vague redness on the whites themselves, the man didn't look worse to wear, or so the blond enviously thought. He could have gotten away with saying he had a little cold and no one would have been the wiser, while Minato would never have been able to hide he had been crying from anyone who so much as looked at him.

He also noticed the way the man brushed at his chin, feeling a little stupid for not thinking to offer before.

'You can shave afterwards, if you want.' he said quietly, giving the little blond distracted hair ruffle when he dashed past him to wash his hands.' I have some spare razors.'

'No, thanks.' said the redhead firmly, once again brushing against his chin, but he decided to leave it alone 'I'd rather use my own things.'

He was already at the bottom when it came to using up the place he had no possibility to show gratification about, especially in monetary value. The only problem with his razor was that it was hidden away in his car he didn't remember where he exactly parked anymore and that was not reassuring. But then, he didn't really own anything valuable, and where would he want to go right now, when he had no direction to head on to…

He frowned, reminding himself of his jobless and homeless state, without responsibilities but also without any idea for the future. Maybe he should have sell this car. It's not like if he would now need such a big family jet pack when he was alone… He grimaced at the thought.

'I will get them afterwards.'

The blond nodded absently, internally thinking that a beard didn't suit the man at all (not that it made him look like a hobo, though the hair helped a little), just that he was very used to see him clean shaven and having him like this made him look like another person altogether.

'If you want, I can get them for you?' Minato hadn't driven a car in about ten years, and the ones in Wind country had the driver's seat in the left passenger seat, but if he was in no hurry, he was relatively confidant he would be able to get the car at the very least the few blocks that separated them from the kinder.

Daichi had rose one of his eyebrows high.

'You can drive?' That was surprising. The blond smiled a little self consciously.

'I don't have a license, if that's what you are asking. But I do know how to drive. Or at least I used to be able to.'

The expression on the other's face immediately turned into grim one. What was the man trying to play at? He had enough problems with law lately to get his car arrested for being driven by a man without license.

'I will get it myself. I don't need two hands for that.' he muttered and almost hid his hands in the pockets only to notice that his pajama pants had no pockets and also that his bandaged hand wouldn't fit in any if he had it. Minato made a face that was so much his son it might as well be photocopied. He didn't think driving one handed was much better than driving without a license, in fact, as far as he was concerned, he was at the advantage. It was the man's' car, however, and if he didn't want to risk it, he could hardly blame him.

'Do you want another pullover?' he asked instead, noticing the man was again dragging around the quilt. Daichi looked at him for a moment like at studying object, quietly amazed how the genes displayed through both of the personas. He didn't know the mother of the child, but if anything, it seemed that Naruto inherited something that resembled his father also. That was a bit strange considering how different his personality was. His own kids were always a mix between unrelated features going through even the older generations.

'If you don't mind.' he muttered, readjusting the piece of material 'It's quite cold in here.'

'I'm sorry.' the blond said, looking rather guilty even though the one who should have asked for the thing was the redhead himself. Neither Minato nor Naruto complained about the climate, both used to the even colder winters of Konoha, where this vague, slushy sort of congealed water barely could be considered snow. Even the oppressive summer wave wasn't as awful as it could be given that it was dry heat. Walking further into the room, he rummaged through the closet until he produced a large woolen pullover in such a dark shade of blue that might as well be called black. Minato usually used it when he wanted to lounger around after a shower without bothering with using the dryer. 'It's big on me also, but it's really warm.' he muttered apologetically.

Daichi took it, vaguely pleased at the dark color and wore it immediately. The wool was a bit scratchy, but the size – except the longevity of the sleeves – was almost perfect in the both arms and chest size. It seemed that the blond, beside having longer hands, had to be also slimmer. The idea had never really crossed his mind before.

'It's fine.' he said as he looked at him for a moment, noticing that the man looked a bit slender and had indeed more fragile frame than his own, even if he really was not the best good looking guy in this district. 'Thank you.'

He also once again wore the quilt. It took time to get warm after all.


End file.
